photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

A Lawrence Police Department patrol vehicle is pictured June 28, 2022.

New arrests have been made in two alleged rapes in Lawrence, including one dating back to 2009, the Lawrence Police Department announced Thursday.

In a news release, the department said that it had arrested two Lawrence residents, 37-year-old Matthew Lawrence and 36-year-old Steven Snow. Lawrence was arrested on Wednesday, and Snow was arrested early Thursday morning. Their cases are not related.

Police provided some details about the allegations against Lawrence. In 2009, they said, a 20-year-old woman reported being “attacked from behind and brutally assaulted while walking home at night.” Police weren’t able to identify a suspect at that time, the release said, but this summer LPD’s Special Victims Unit reviewed the case files and resubmitted evidence for DNA testing.

“The KBI reported the DNA is a match with a statistical likelihood of one in 848 trillion … consistent with Matthew Lawrence,” an LPD detective wrote in the affidavit that was submitted to the District Attorney’s office, according to the release.

Lawrence appeared in front of Judge Amy Hanley on Thursday on one count of rape. She appointed the public defender’s office to represent him and set his bond at $250,000. The state had requested $500,000 because of the severity of the charge; the defender asked for a $5,000 or house arrest, arguing that it had been 17 years since the alleged offense, Lawrence had only one misdemeanor on his record in that time, and he was an area resident and not a flight risk.

Lawrence is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 23.

Police did not release details about the allegations against Snow other than that they involve the rape of a minor. “Details of this second arrest will be withheld to protect witnesses and victims,” the release said.

LPD has said that new technology has enabled it to make arrests in cases that have been cold for years or even decades. One such case was announced in December, when the department arrested a man accused of sexually attacking two children decades ago in a Lawrence park, 25 years after the first offense.

LPD Detective Joshua Leitner, in Thursday’s release, reiterated that technological developments played a role.

“Technological advances in our work have made these crimes more prosecutable with clear evidence,” Leitner said. “We’re thankful for that and always thankful to the brave survivors for coming forward to make the judicial process possible.”