Man Sentenced to 650 Years in Prison in Brutal 1980s Sex Crimes

DNA on an envelope helped to seal the fate of Steven Ray Hessler, who prosecutors said violently assaulted seven women, a 16-year-old girl and two men in Shelby County, Ind., from 1982 to 1985.

Steven Ray Hessler, 59, an elusive rapist who terrorized victims in Shelby County, Ind., in the 1980s often disguised himself in a bulky coat and covered his face with a ski mask or leggings, prosecutors said.Credit...Shelby County Prosecutor’s Office

For decades, the police in Shelby County, Ind., could not identify the man who broke into houses at night, armed with a knife or a gun, woke his victims, and then bound and sexually tortured them. He often disguised himself in a bulky coat and covered his face with a ski mask or leggings.

Then, in 2020, 35 years after his last known assault in the county, investigators were finally able to identify the attacker as Steven Ray Hessler, and arrest him. The breakthrough came, prosecutors said, when DNA extracted from the envelope of a water bill that Mr. Hessler had licked matched DNA that had been left at the scene of his last known crime in the county, on Aug. 17, 1985.

On Friday, Mr. Hessler, 59, was sentenced to 650 years in prison. The sentence came a month after a jury convicted Mr. Hessler of two counts of rape, six counts of unlawful deviate conduct, seven counts of burglary resulting in bodily injury, three counts of criminal deviate conduct and one count of robbery.

James B. Landwerlen, the prosecutor in Shelby County, southeast of Indianapolis, said that from Aug. 14, 1982, to Aug. 17, 1985, Mr. Hessler brutally assaulted 10 victims: seven women, a 16-year-old girl, and two men, including a former Marine whom he had handcuffed, hogtied and beat with a gun, leaving him in a coma for months.

“Steven Ray Hessler is one of the most evil, dangerous, sadistic predators that I’ve had the pleasure of prosecuting” in a career of more than 30 years, Mr. Landwerlen said in a statement.

Mr. Landwerlen credited the victims for testifying to some of the torment they had endured at the hands of Mr. Hessler. “These attacks have had profound impacts on their lives,” he said, describing Mr. Hessler’s victims as “living in a recurring state of fear.” Continue reading

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