Single fingerprint leads to arrest in violent home invasion of 70-year-old man

STOWE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — An arrest has been made in a violent home invasion five years after the crime.

The previously unsolved case had a breakthrough, as police charged a suspect in the 2015 incident in Stowe Township. Darryll Johnson was caught by a single fingerprint.

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Police said Johnson’s partner in crime had been harassing the 70-year-old victim for days. Investigators said three men, including Johnson, duct-taped Michael Caputo to bathroom pipes in the basement and beat him with a gun inside his home.

The men robbed Caputo and left him tied up. Luckily, Caputo was able to escape and run for help.

“I had an idea that (I would be killed that day) and that’s the reason I tried to save myself,” said Caputo.

Caputo wiggled out of the duct tape and extension cord that was around his ankles and got help.

Five years later, police identified Johnson using a gun dropped at the scene and a single fingerprint found on that duct tape that police said matched Johnson’s right thumb.

Since that traumatic experience, Caputo and his wife installed four security cameras to the outside of their house.

While Johnson is in police custody, two other suspects have never been publicly identified.

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