AHWATUKEE, AZ (CBS5) -
It was mid-November in 2004 on a quiet street in Ahwatukee that a 17-year-old girl awoke to a box cutter at her throat.
She was blindfolded and brutally raped for hours while her family slept.
"She had an individual that entered the house to ostensibly commit a burglary. While he was there, he sexually assaulted this young girl," said Sgt. Tommy Thompson from the Phoenix Police Department.
A rape kit didn't reveal a complete DNA profile at the time, and the case went cold.
In 2007, a new Phoenix police detective took over, and three years after that, he made a discovery.
"They found out that there was a cup that the young girl thought, didn't see it but thought, that the suspect had taken a drink," said Thompson.
That blue cup had been sitting in evidence since day one, but it was never processed.
"There's a finite number of evidence that we can test," Thompson explained. The blue cup didn't make the cut.
It was another two years before results on the cup came back.
The DNA was reportedly a match to 35-year-old Keith Edward Allen, a registered sex offender who was already in the system.
He lived with his parents just a mile and a half from the young victim.
Allen was arrested Aug. 30 at 4 Sons gas station on Chandler Boulevard. It was his first day on the job.
CBS 5 News asked Thompson in hindsight if something could have been done differently in the case.
His response was emphatic: "No. I think they did exactly what they should have."
Allen is facing 13 felony charges. His preliminary hearing is set for Monday, Sept. 10.
Copyright 2012 KPHO CBS 5 (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
