LOXAHATCHEE, FL--Numerous leads, a Crime Stoppers re-enactment, and a 2008 DNA match helped lead to the arrest and conviction of a Clewiston man wanted in a home invasion and rape in 1996.
State Attorney Michael McAuliffe announced the conviction of Alberto Cartagena after evidence at a trial showed Cartagena showed up to a home in Loxahatchee where a young mother and three small girls lived. Evidence showed Cartagena cut the phone lines and power to the home and entered the home through one of the children's bedrooms. The mother awoke to her daughter's screams found a man with his face painted and holding a knife in her daughter's bedroom.
The man threatened the mother with the knife as he sexually assaulted her.
The case had remained unsolved until DNA evidence collected at the scene matched Cartagena's in 2008.
Cartagena faces a maximum of life in prison.
