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Last updated on Monday, February 8, 2016
(MARTINSVILLE) - A man wanted on rape charges in Lebanon fatally shot himself Thursday night after a police pursuit in Morgan County.
Morgan County Sheriff Robert Downey says 49-year-old Todd Richardson shot himself after deputies and U.S. Marshals tried to serve an arrest warrant issued by Johnson County.
Richardson fled in a vehicle and when that chase ended Richardson shot himself at an undisclosed location.
Richardson was then flown by helicopter to an Indianapolis hospital where he died.
The Indiana State Police are investigating the incident.
Richardson, of Franklin, was arrested January 28 by the Lebanon Police Department after new DNA testing techniques led officials to suspect him in the attempted rape of a woman in her Lebanon home in June 1990.
Richardson was facing charged of attempted rape, criminal deviate conduct, criminal confinement, burglary and intimidation.
Richardson faced a maximum of 148 years in prison.
The The Lebanon Reporter says that Richardson, a Lebanon High School graduate, posted $100,000 bond on February 1. At an initial hearing on January 28, Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Edens entered a preliminary plea of not guilty for Richardson, ordered him to have no contact with the victim and set trial for May 9.
The attempted rape case sat dormant until October 2015, when the Lebanon Police Department was contacted about a match in the Combined DNA Index System
During the crime bodily fluid was left on the victim, her comforter, robe and two other items. Not until Richardson's DNA was entered from a 2015 stalking conviction in Johnson County, however, did a match occur.
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