VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – A 50-year-old man found guilty of a 1985 rape was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.
Andrew Scott Tarantole was found guilty on August 5, after a four-day trial.
On April 13, 1985, a woman was raped in the woods off General Booth Blvd.
The victim had been out with her husband and friends in the oceanfront area. The woman was ready to leave earlier than the rest of her group, so she walked home.
The woman passed Tarantole as he sat on a guardrail and he asked her if she wanted to “get high.” She declined and kept walking.
Tarantole then followed the victim and pulled up beside her in a car asking if she wanted a ride.
She declined again and kept walking. Tarantole then approached the victim on foot, pulled her into nearby woods, and raped her.
He then ran away and the victim flagged down a passing vehicle for help.
Once she got home, the woman called police and met investigators at a hospital.
As a part of her Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, seminal fluid was collected and preserved. In the 1980s scientific testing was limited and DNA testing wasn’t readily available so no suspect was developed at that time. As a result, the case went cold.
In 2014 the seminal fluid was submitted to the Department of Forensic Science to see if a suspect could be identified.
The DNA match was made to Tarantole, who has previous convictions for rape, attempted rape, sexual battery, and abduction for four separate offenses between 1985 and 1993.
