Suspect arrested 15 years after woman’s violent rape at NKY hotel

COVINGTON, Ky. (WXIX) - A 15-year search for the suspect in a woman’s rape at a Northern Kentucky hotel yielded an arrest Wednesday, according to court documents.

Ian Angel, 47, of Union, is behind bars at the Kenton County Jail on charges of rape and robbery, jail records show.

”It’s a good message that law enforcement never quits,” said Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders. “We never forget. We never give up. I wish it would have happened a lot sooner for this victim.”

The alleged rape happened the night of August 23, 2007, at the Super 8 Motel in Fort Mitchell, according to Fort Mitchell Police Detective Jess Hamblin.

The victim told police she had a hotel room where she performed dances or massage services for clients. She said she had been contacted by a man, now believed to be Angel, who requested 30 minutes of services at an agreed-upon price.

When the 30 minutes had expired, according to the victim, Angel allegedly requested sexual acts, which she refused to provide. He then allegedly got angry and punched her multiple times in the face, knocking her unconscious.

The victim said she woke up to find around $200 in cash and two cell phones missing from her room. She told police she had been “possibly sexually assaulted.”

She underwent a forensic sexual assault examination at the time, yielding a DNA sample of the suspect that police submitted it to the Kentucky State Police State Lab.

Fort Mitchell police used cell phone records to identify Angel as a suspect shortly after the 2007 incident, according to Hamblin. However, police were unable to find Angel for an interview, nor could they get a DNA sample to crossmatch with the victim’s sample, so the case was closed.

It remained closed until June 2022, when the victim’s sample was entered into the National DNA Index System database, producing a match with Angel’s DNA from an August 2011 arrest in Las Vegas, Nevada.

KSP notified Hamblin of the match on June 13. Fort Mitchell police filed the complaint against him in Kenton County District Court Monday and took him into custody Wednesday afternoon.

Angel’s bond was set at $100,000. His arraignment date has not been set.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.

Copyright 2022 WXIX. All rights reserved.