The early March arrest of a Winter Park man in the Feb. 12 Hightower Beach rape case hinged on cooperation between the Satellite Beach Police and Polk County Sheriff’s Office, including the discovery of an illegal Facebook page and a timely test for DNA – confirmed by a plastic fork – for a match with the suspect, registered sexual predator Harry Claude Page.
Page remains in Brevard County Jail on no bond facing three life sentences for charges including attempted murder, aggravated sexual battery, burglary of occupied vehicle, aggravated battery, robbery and false imprisonment.
In the Feb. 12 Hightower Beach crime, DNA evidence including scrapings collected under the victim’s fingernails linked Page. He was arrested March 15.
The DNA used to make the link with the Brevard crime was on file from previous charges from a 2000 incident in Tampa in which Page was convicted of attacking an early-morning jogger. For that conviction, Page became a registered Sexual Predator and was required to notify law enforcement regularly of his whereabouts. Page was also prohibited from setting up social media accounts under an alias to subvert efforts to track his online activity.
After evidence collected in the Hightower case matched old DNA on file for Page, Satellite Beach police notified Polk County that Page, of Winter Park, was a suspect. That in turn triggered an investigation of his required periodic check-ins with authorities, during which detectives discovered an alias Facebook page, an email address, two vehicles (owned by Page’s girlfriend), plus Page’s failure to report his sex offender status to employers including a job working as a roofer. Page was arrested and agreed to collection of additional DNA information from swabs.
During an encounter with police, Page casually disgarded the plastic fork he was using, which was picked up as evidence in plain sight.
Records show the fork “provided a newer, more recent DNA sample and was collected to assist the Satellite Beach Police Department with their investigation. The suspect was utilizing the fork while in contact with detectives which was fortuitous. It is common to collect such items when DNA samples are needed in an investigation.”
Satellite Beach Police Chief Jeff Pearson said the DNA evidence collected by his investigators – and subsequently confirmed by Polk County – was the key to making a solid arrest in the disturbing case.
“Our investigators worked closely with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office team to locate and ultimately arrest the suspect and get a very dangerous individual off the street. We were very impressed with their work and cooperation,’’ he said.
Polk County investigators also seized Page’s cellphone, which linked him by location to the Hightower Beach crime. Sunpass records for the vehicle Page was driving also show he had been traveling extensively on toll roads around Florida, with records of him passing through electronic toll stops back and forth on the Beachline several times prior to and including the day of the Feb. 12 crime.
“Technology is ever-changing and people rely on it heavily in their day to day interactions. It is no different for sexual offenders. Offenders registering their identifiers allows law enforcement the ability to monitor offenders and provides evidence in criminal investigations. Registering their phone numbers, email addresses, messaging applications and social media accounts levels the playing field for law enforcement, since this is how most people meet and communicate,’’ according to a statement on the case from Polk County.
Polk County officials said in the statement that “teamwork, tenacity, and communication on behalf of both agencies helped. The current sexual offender registration requirements helped as well. The information that the subject was required to register provided intelligence that assisted in his arrest. The failure to register arrest also provided the opportunity to seize the suspect’s cellular phone as evidence in both cases.”
