CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office just announced a 1999 cold case rape in Cleveland has been solved, thanks to an identification of the suspect made through DNA technology.

Bart Mercurio, 50, was charged with one count of Rape, one count of Kidnapping and one count of Aggravated Burglary.

The case was solved by the office’s G.O.L.D. Unit– Genetic Operations Linking DNA.

This is a break in one of CCPO’s 20 “Most Wanted” profiles including serial offenders and stranger sexual assaults.

“I am extremely proud of the dedicated work by all involved that led to this arrest,” said Prosecutor O’Malley. “Although time may have passed, justice will not. It has been a long 22 years for this victim, but we hope today’s news will bring her some comfort in knowing this individual is finally behind bars.”

A 33-year-old woman left her house to go for a walk in Tremont on May 6, 1999, the prosecutor’s office said.

When she got home, prosecutors said Mercurio was waiting for her inside and grabbed her, striking her several times until she lost consciousness.

They said he sexually assaulted her and ran away.

The victim called police and sought help at a hospital, where a sexual assault kit was collected.

But the suspect was not found.

Years later in 2013, the prosecutor’s office created the Sexual Assault Kit Task Force (SAKTF) to investigate leads from new testing of previously unsubmitted rape kits.

Rape kits from across Ohio went untested from 1993 to 2011.

This is where CCPO began to look at the victim’s case again.

Her rape kit was tested by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, BCI.

But the suspect’s DNA did not match anyone in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is the FBI’s national DNA database.

The prosecutor’s…