A DNA match has resulted in an Aliquippa man being charged in connection with a kidnapping and rape of a woman reported to Reserve police more than 37 years ago.
Allegheny County Police charged Lewis Vearnon, 65, on Tuesday with rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, sexual assault and indecent assault.
Vearnon was arrested Wednesday morning, said James Madalinsky, a spokesman for Allegheny County Police. He was denied bail at an arraignment and sent to the Allegheny County Jail, according to court records.
According to a criminal complaint, DNA analysis led police to determine that Vearnon was the man who took a sleeping woman out of a car outside the Confetti night club at Parkway Center, drove her to another location and raped her in January 1989.
Reserve police asked for help from Allegheny County Police on Jan. 17, 1989, when the woman was at Allegheny General Hospital. At the time, an investigation did not lead to any arrests, the complaint states.
According to the complaint, the woman, whose age was not disclosed, told detectives she was at a party with friends at the Virginia Hills trailer park when they decided to go dancing at Confetti. When they arrived, she decided had too much to drink and stayed in the car to sleep it off while her friends went into the lounge.
The woman said she woke up to an unknown man taking her out of the vehicle. He put her into another vehicle and began to drive as she was in and out of consciousness, the complaint states.
When she woke up, the man was kissing her, taking off her clothes and then raped her, the complaint states. They began to fight, with each punching the other in the face, causing her to fall out of the vehicle. The man took some of her jewelry and fled.
The woman walked to the Northside Drive-In and then to a home on Spring Garden Avenue, where she called Pittsburgh police, who in turn contacted Reserve police.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner reported to county police on Nov. 26, 2024, that a potential DNA match was found for the case.
According to the complaint, the lab report said a hit was generated between the DNA obtained from the woman’s sexual assault evidence collection kit and the DNA of a convicted offender in the Pennsylvania State Police DNA database, identified as Vearnon.
Because the report alone was not enough for an arrest, a mouth swab from Vearnon was required for comparison and confirmation, the complaint states.
Police obtained a search warrant for Vearnon’s DNA on Jan. 3, 2025, and served it two days later at the Allegheny County Jail. On Nov. 12, 2025, a report confirmed the DNA match with Vearnon, according to the complaint.
Vearnon did not have an attorney listed in court records. His preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for April 30 before District Judge Daniel J. Konieczka Jr.
