Woman was raped at senior living facility in 2008, CA officials say. Now, man charged
A man has been charged 16 years after California prosecutors say a woman was sexually assaulted at her senior living facility.
James Aaron Whisenand, 43, was taken into custody “more than 2,000 miles away” in Indiana and charged in the 2008 “home invasion rape” of a 61-year-old woman, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in Sept. 10 news release.
“Wearing a ski mask,” Whisenand is accused of entering the woman’s first-floor San Jose apartment on Jan. 6, 2008, prosecutors said.
Whisenand punched her “in the face, breaking her nose,” prosecutors said.
Then, he “choked her before sexually assaulting her multiple times,” according to prosecutors.
The rape haunted the woman.
“I’ve had my soul ripped out,” the woman told Mercury News months after the assault. “I lost my dignity.”
No suspects were immediately identified, and three years later, the woman died of natural causes, prosecutors said.
For more than a decade, the case was stagnant.
Then, in 2023, Whisenand was convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery, prosecutors said, and his DNA was submitted to the Combined DNA Index System.
His DNA matched DNA that was found in the woman’s apartment in 2008, prosecutors said.
“At the time of the rape, Whisenand lived with his then wife … just two blocks from the victim’s senior living facility,” prosecutors said.
When Indiana authorities asked Whisenand to come fill out paperwork to register as a sex offender, he was met by the San Jose police detectives who originally investigated the case, prosecutors said.
He was taken into custody Monday, Sept. 9, and will be extradited to California to stand trial, according to prosecutors.
“As our forensic technology grows, the reach of justice becomes longer,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in the release.
Whisenand, who is being held without bail, could face life in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Woman was raped at senior living facility in 2008, CA officials say. Now, man charged."
