For five and a half hours in 1989, a man covered Dana Beatty's head and face with thick white tape and repeatedly sexually assaulted her inside her Columbia Tusculum condominium, threatening her with a kitchen knife throughout the attack. The case went cold for decades. Then, in early 2024, her daughter picked up the phone and refused to let it stay that way.
A Daughter's Push Reopens a Decades-Old Case
Andra Beatty contacted the Cincinnati Police Department and urged investigators to take another look at her mother's unsolved case, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Her mother later told Dateline her daughter's intervention was an unbelievable act of love. Evidence from the original assault had been preserved for decades, and with advances in DNA technology, a Cincinnati police detective was finally able to develop a lead, prompting investigators to reopen the case.
That lead pointed to Frederick Tanzer, a former physician who was identified as the attacker in Beatty's 1989 assault. Investigators matched DNA collected from the scene in 1989 to Tanzer after retrieving a Starbucks cup he discarded decades later, the Enquirer reported.
A License Obtained Just Months Before the Attack
Tanzer had obtained his medical license only two months before the 1989 attack and went on to practice medicine in Ohio, Colorado, Kansas and Arizona. At the time of the assault, he was married to Beatty's best friend, according to the Enquirer's reporting. Andra Beatty described Tanzer to Dateline as charismatic but not nice.
Federal prosecutors, Cincinnati police and the FBI worked together to hold Tanzer accountable for assaulting Beatty, the Enquirer reported. But because the statute of limitations had expired, prosecutors could not charge him with rape. Instead, Tanzer, 67, pleaded guilty in federal court in Dayton to three counts of making false statements to federal agents, according to a separate Enquirer report.
Judge Calls Him a Serial Rapist, Imposes Maximum Sentence
Prosecutors called Tanzer a serial rapist, and U.S. District Judge Michael Newman used the same term at sentencing before imposing the maximum possible sentence: 15 years in federal prison. Tanzer's license to practice internal medicine in Ohio was permanently revoked in March 2025, the outlet's report noted.
During the Dateline interview process, Tanzer said he developed a rape fantasy after watching the film *Last Tango in Paris* at age 14, and told correspondent Blayne Alexander he knew he had done something very bad and was sorry. He ended his interview after being asked about additional allegations. Those allegations include claims from both his ex-wife and the wife he was married to at the time of his arrest, each of whom accused him of drugging her before having sex with her; Tanzer was not charged in connection with those drugging allegations.
Lasting Trauma and a Push for Legal Change
Dana Beatty has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic insomnia, night terrors, panic attacks and chronic anxiety since the attack, and has spent decades in therapy. She is now suing Tanzer in what her attorney described as an effort to hold him accountable, the Enquirer reported. Beatty has also become an advocate for changing statutes of limitations for sexual assault cases.
Ohio's current law already prohibits prosecution of rape and sexual-battery offenses more than 20 years after an attack, with the clock starting at age 18 if the survivor was a minor, according to the Ohio House of Representatives. Beatty's case fell outside even that window by the time investigators identified Tanzer, which is part of why federal false-statement charges became the only avenue prosecutors had left.
Dateline Airs the Case Tonight
Dateline NBC will feature Beatty's and Tanzer's story in an episode premiering at 9 p.m. Friday, with Blayne Alexander interviewing Beatty, her daughter and Tanzer for the broadcast.
