Law enforcement seeks information related to 1989 rape

Date: Dec. 11, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Dayton, OH - A Sycamore Township man was arrested by federal agents today and charged with making false statements related to a 1989 rape. Officials ask anyone with information regarding this or any other similar rape to contact the FBI at 800-CALL-FBI.

It is alleged that Frederick Louis Tanzer knowingly made a false statement to FBI agents. His home on Kenwood Road and vehicles were searched today, and Tanzer appeared in federal court in Dayton following his arrest.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Tanzer was recently identified as the prime suspect in the cold-case rape. In recent months, agents collected DNA evidence from a Starbucks cup that Tanzer discarded at a local BMV. The DNA extracted from Tanzer's coffee cup was confirmed by a forensic laboratory as a match to the DNA the rapist had left at the 1989 crime scene.

It is alleged that Tanzer made several materially false statements to federal investigators when approached today, including denying having seen or interacted with the victim on the date she was raped.

Tanzer is a medical doctor who has lived and practiced medicine in Ohio, Kansas and Colorado.

The affidavit details that on Aug. 1, 1989, the victim was violently raped in her condominium on Creighton Place in Cincinnati after arriving home from work.

Federal law enforcement officials ask the public to consider these circumstances of the rape and to contact the FBI with any similar information:

• When the victim arrived home, she noticed an odor that smelled to her like brewed tea or burnt marijuana.
• The rapist was dressed from head to toe in black Lycra, including black gloves and a face mask. He had a black gym bag with him.
• The assailant held a knife to the victim's throat.
• The rapist used white surgical tape from the gym bag to wrap around the victim's eyes and head. He used stockings and panty hose from the victim's dresser to bind her hands and feet to the headboard and footboard of her bed.
• The rapist cut or tore the victim's clothing and used Vaseline.
• The rapist assaulted the victim vaginally, orally and anally. In between bouts of sexual conduct, the assailant used a cloth to wipe the victim's mouth and genital areas.
• The rapist said nothing during the entire encounter. He occasionally took breaks from sexually assaulting the victim while the victim remained tied to her bed.
• The rapist listened to and erased answering machine messages. He looked through papers in the victim's living room and rummaged through her purse. He unplugged and/or disconnected telephones.
• On the handset of the telephone in the bedroom, the rapist taped a piece of newspaper that had been cut from the paper on the couch in the victim's living room and wrote, "No police or I'll be back Mis [sic] [name of victim's employer]"
• The victim described the rapist as white, with dark brown hair, approximately six feet tall with a thin or athletic build.
• The assault took place over the course of more than five and a half hours.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cincinnati Division; and Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa A. Theetge announced the arrest. The IRS-Criminal Investigation Cincinnati Field Office assisted in the investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly K. Rossi and Julie D. Garcia are representing the United States in this case.

A criminal complaint merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.