WINK Digital Team
•8/26/2026
NAPLES, Fla. — A cold case from 1999 just got cracked wide open thanks to DNA recovered from a fork he used at an Arizona restaurant.
The Collier County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of Terry Lynn Denton, 71, on charges connected to the sexual battery of a Naples woman more than 27 years ago.
According to the sheriff's office, the attack happened on June 2, 1999, after the victim returned alone to her North Naples apartment following an evening at a jazz club in Bonita Springs.
An unknown man grabbed her from behind as she unlocked her door, covered her mouth and carried her inside before leaving.
A sexual assault kit was collected at the hospital, but DNA from the evidence did not match anyone in the national DNA database, and the case eventually went cold.
The breakthrough came in August 2025 when the sheriff's office sent the DNA evidence to DNA Labs International for forensic genetic genealogy analysis, a method that builds family trees from DNA to identify unknown suspects.
In February 2026, the lab narrowed the investigation down to two people, including Denton, who was living in Glendale, Arizona.
FBI agents then conducted surveillance at a restaurant where Denton was dining and collected items he left behind, including a drinking glass, straw, spoon and metal fork.
On June 18, lab results confirmed the DNA from the metal fork matched the DNA from the victim's sexual assault kit, with the match being more than 700 billion times more likely to have come from Denton than from an unrelated person.
Detectives later traveled to Arizona and collected a DNA sample directly from Denton, which also confirmed the match.
During an interview at his residence, Denton denied ever living in Collier County in 1999, but detectives confronted him with records showing he had a Florida driver's license listing a Naples address in 1998 and lived less than a mile from the victim at the time of the attack.
"For 27 years the victim waited for answers," Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said. "Thanks to forensic genetic genealogy, the persistence of our detectives and the invaluable assistance of the FBI and our other law enforcement partners, we can finally hold the person responsible accountable."
This case marks the first arrest for the Collier County Sheriff's Office to result from a forensic genetic genealogy investigation.
Denton was taken into custody by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Fugitive Apprehension Unit and is currently booked into the Sarasota County Jail awaiting extradition to Collier County.
"No offender should believe that time or distance will shield them from accountability," FBI Tampa Division Special Agent in Charge Rodney Crawford said. "Advances in forensic technology combined with relentless investigative work ensure victims are never forgotten and those responsible are ultimately held accountable, no matter how long it takes."
