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Police: Alarm Company, Victims Not Linked In Rape Case

DNA At Suspect's House Links Him To Case, Say Authorities

POSTED: 1:56 pm CDT May 1, 2008
UPDATED: 8:21 am CDT May 12, 2008

Metro police said on Friday there is no connection between the Nashville victims and the alarm company where accused Wooded Rapist Robert Jason Burdick was employed.

Authorities said none of the victims he is accused of attacking in Nashville were customers of WB Technologies.

Related: Images | Timeline | Video

Channel 4's Cynthia Williams interviewed on Friday a man who was at Tee Gee's Restaurant in LaVergne where police collected DNA from Burdick.

Reporter Nancy Amons also talked with a woman who could have been another victim of the Wooded Rapist, but her mother-in-law called police after she spotted him prowling around the house.

Police believe Burdick, 38, is responsible for at least 13 rapes over the last 15 years.

The Wooded Rapist has eluded capture for over a decade and is suspected in rapes in Davidson, Williamson and Wilson counties.

Police said Burdick could have raped as many as 40 women since 1994 and may have struck again just three months ago.

Burdick lived on Ash Grove Court in South Nashville.

Police said Burdick was traveling eastbound on Interstate 24 in Rutherford County on Thursday when local authorities pulled him over at the request of Metro and Brentwood detectives.

Metro authorities received word shortly after 9 a.m. from the TBI Crime Laboratory that Burdick's DNA matched biological samples recovered from many of the crime scenes.

After his arrest, Burdick was turned over to investigators from Metro, Brentwood, Wilson County and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

He is currently in custody at Metro police headquarters. He refused to answer questions and was booked into the Metro Jail at 1:30 p.m. where he is being held without bond pending an appearance in Criminal Court.

A search warrant executed at Burdick's home on Thursday uncovered evidence linking him to the rape cases, said Metro police.

Brentwood Officer Credited With Arrest

Police said a major break in the case occurred during a traffic stop by a Brentwood officer on Meadowlake Road at 1:30 a.m. Monday.

A resident of Meadowlake subdivision called 911 after seeing a suspicious person, dressed in black, wearing a mask and carrying a flashlight.

Brentwood Police Officer Elliott Hamm stopped Burdick's Jeep as it was leaving the area. Burdick claimed that he had been attending a party in the area and had to park on the street.

Burdick refused Hamm's request to search the Jeep. The officer then recorded Burdick's information, released him, but forwarded Burdick's details to the Brentwood Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division.

That stop prompted around-the-clock surveillance of Burdick by Metro and Brentwood detectives, who have been working very closely together on the Wooded Rapist cases since 1999.

Police said the Davidson County Grand Jury returned a multi-count indictment against a John Doe two years ago, and Burdick will now be listed as the person indicted.

The charges are five counts of aggravated rape, one count of attempted aggravated rape, one count of attempted rape, one count of aggravated assault and six counts of aggravated burglary.

Channel 4 also learned that police followed Burdick into a Tee Gee's Restaurant in LaVergne, confiscated a cup that he used, and his DNA matched that from the rape cases.

Burdick's Past Employment

Burdick is a co-owner with a friend in WB Technologies, a company located at 2201 Murfreesboro Pike in Nashville that specializes in burglar alarm technology.

Channel 4 has also learned that Burdick worked at Riverbend Maximum Security as a correctional officer from July 1999 to December 2000. He was a graduate of Clarksville High School.

In a state application, Burdick said he was a 1993 graduate of the Nashville Auto Diesel College. Victims in the Wooded Rapist cases often said their attacker smelled like motor oil.

The serial attacker was called the Wooded Rapist because he always struck in homes near woods, frequently right after it rained.


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