Indiana man arrested for 2008 rape of 61-year-old San Jose woman, DA's office says

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced a major break in a sexual assault cold case that happened 16 years ago in San Jose.

The victim died of natural causes while waiting for justice.

Warning: This story may be disturbing for some viewers

After a hit on a DNA database, investigators arrested the suspect in Indiana on Monday.

A 61-year-old woman living on the first floor of what is now known as the Redwood Senior Apartments of Willow Glen was brutally attacked in her apartment in January of 2008.

The DA's office says someone wearing a ski mask punched her in the face, broke her nose, then choked her before sexually assaulting her multiple times.

"What's really sad is that she had complained to the management that she felt someone had been looking in her window and she felt unsafe and this horrible thing happened to her," Rob Baker, the Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney said.

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It was 22 years ago when Oakley police say a teen was out walking her dog on a trail and was approached by a man and ordered her into the backseat.

Sixteen years went by with no answers, until March of this year.

That's when investigators got a DNA hit in the national database pointing them to a possible suspect living more than 2,000 miles away in Indiana.

The hit came from another sexual assault case in Crescent City, near the Oregon border.

"Because of this young brave woman coming forward and reporting him back in 2021 in Crescent City, he was arrested, convicted and his DNA was put in the national database and that was what led us to him," Baker said. "She's really the hero."

Baker says his office wasted no time contacting the original San Jose Police detectives who investigated this case 16 years ago.

"I called them up on a Friday and I said, do you remember this case? And they said, you know what? That was one of the biggest cases that has haunted them for literally decades," he said.

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The two detectives worked with multiple law enforcement agencies over the past few months before convincing the suspect to come down to the local police department in Indiana to fill out forms related to his sex offender registration.

That's where he was met by those same two San Jose detectives who investigated the case in 2008.

"I wish she was still alive to know that we caught the perpetrator," he said.

The suspect is 43-year-old James Whisenand.

We are naming him and showing his picture because investigators believe there could be other victims.

The DA's office released his DMV picture from 2011 and his booking photo from Indiana on Monday.

Court records show that at the time of the rape, Whisenand and his then-wife lived just two blocks away from the victim's senior living facility in San Jose.

"If he's done this to other people, we want to know," he said. "If anyone recognizes him, that's something that's going to be important to us not just in prosecuting the case, but making sure he's fully brought to justice."

Whisenand is currently being held without bail pending his extradition to Santa Clara County in the next 10 days.

If anyone has any additional information about Whisenand, you are asked to call (408) 792-2466 or email coldcasetips@dao.sccgov.org.