Nearly 40 years after an 85-year-old Deerfield Beach woman was attacked in her apartment, investigators say a DNA match has put a name to the case: Gregory Rollison. He is now facing charges tied to the 1987 sexual assault and armed burglary, a long-delayed break built on evidence that outlasted the original investigation.
According to CBS12, the woman was asleep when the suspect entered through a sliding door, tied her up, assaulted her twice at knifepoint, stole items and fled. Similar events occurred 10 days later just miles away, but investigators could not positively confirm their suspect with the technology available at the time. Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective Andrew Gianino, one of the original deputies on the case, later pushed for a fresh review with help from crime-lab analysts and crime-scene detectives. That reexamination produced a DNA match to Rollison, who was already serving a nine-year California prison sentence for attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer.
Rollison has been moved to Broward County and faces two counts of sexual battery and one count of armed burglary of a dwelling, officials said. The charges are allegations, and a court will determine the outcome of the case.
Broward Cold Cases Are Getting A Second Look
The Deerfield Beach case is part of a broader effort by Broward investigators to revisit older sexual-assault files as forensic tools improve. In a November 2025 release, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said advanced DNA testing and a familial search helped identify a suspect in a 2009 Pompano Beach sexual-battery case.
That approach has also surfaced in other local investigations. A previous Hoodline report detailed how investigators revisited a 2015 Tamarac sexual-assault case after DNA testing and a familial search generated a lead.
In another example, the Broward Sheriff’s Office announced in 2025 that DNA testing and additional investigative work helped solve the murders of two teenage girls who were killed in 1975. Detective Gianino was also involved in that case, underscoring how the agency’s cold-case work increasingly combines old evidence with newer laboratory methods.
For the Deerfield Beach victim, the case’s return is arriving decades after the attack and after her death. But the evidence remained, and investigators now say it has carried the case back into the criminal-justice system.
