The Lee County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit detectives have arrested a Fort Myers man responsible for a decades old sexual battery case.
Police say, Paul Shannon Jacob is the man who sexually assaulted a young girl on December 9, 1995. Police arrested Jacob at his home in Fort Myers on Wednesday. He's been charged with sexual battery of a minor.
Deputies say they received a call from the victim on that day in 1995. She reported a sexual battery that happened on a dirt road extension in the area of Veronica Shoemaker Boulevard. The victim gave a description of the man who assaulted her and the vehicle he was in. The victim said the suspect offered to drive her to get something to eat at a restaurant. Instead, the suspect drove the victim to a wooded area and sexually battered her in the vehicle. He then dropped her off at an apartment complex.
Jacob was identified after a DNA match from the National Institute of Justice Project.
“We’ve come a long way with DNA analysis since 1995,” says Undersheriff Marceno. “Both Sheriff Scott and I, above all else, recognize the need to remove violent offenders from the streets and neighborhoods of Lee County. The apprehension of Paul Shannon Jacob, by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, places a cruel and dangerous criminal in a place where he can do no further damage.”
Jacob was charged with sexual battery on a minor and has bonded out of jail.
