Serial Rapist Linked To String Of Attacks By DNA From Envelope Slapped With 650-Year Sentence

A serial rapist who has been linked to the rape and assault of over 10 victims in Indiana during the 1980s has been sentenced to 650 years in prison on Monday, April 4, after DNA found in one of the scenes led to his eventual conviction.

Fifty-nine-year-old Steven Ray Hessler from Greensburg, Indiana has been convicted of over 19 felony charges committed between 1982 and 1985, including two counts of rape and seven counts of burglary resulting in bodily injury, among other crimes, according to the New York Daily News.

Hessler reportedly raped, attacked, and sexually tortured over ten women, breaking into their homes while masked and armed before sexually assaulting them. He once also sent a man into a coma for months by striking them with a gun during one of his attacks, CBS News reported.

That male victim who was left comatose “for years now has been confined to a wheelchair,” Prosecutor Brad Landwerlen said of the situation.

The crimes, which stopped in the late 1980s after Hessler was convicted of rape and sentenced to 20 years in prison, were originally attributed to Hessler’s cousin in 1983. It is unclear, however, if that investigation led to any convictions.

The case broke through in 2020 when a DNA sample found on the envelope of a utility bill in one scene was linked to Hessler through the use of technology that helped in finding the Golden State Killer.

A search of his home led to the discovery of some stolen photographs of one of the victims, as well as other evidence that links him to the abuse of the women victims. He was also found to have researched at least four of the victims on his computer in an attempt to keep tabs on them.

“Steven Ray Hessler is one of the most evil, dangerous, sadistic predators that I've had the pleasure of prosecuting in my 30 plus year career,” Landwerlen said.

“He derived great pleasure from his unnecessarily brutal methods of terrorizing and sexually torturing his victims. I promised the victims early on that my goal would be that he [would] go to prison [for] the rest of his life, and all involved are very happy that we have achieved that goal.”

It is unclear where Hessler will be serving his time in prison.