Sixteen years after a South Florida woman was raped at gunpoint while her two children slept nearby, the man responsible has finally been identified and arrested through advanced DNA technology, the Broward Sheriff’s Office revealed Monday.
BSO officials announced that 63-year-old Wisler Marcellus has been charged with sexual battery with a weapon and armed burglary in connection with the 2009 Pompano Beach attack. Investigators credited the agency’s Cold Case Unit and Crime Lab, working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, for solving the case
Broward mom attacked at gunpoint while her children slept
The crime occurred around 3:30 a.m. on June 19, 2009, when a 36-year-old mother was asleep in her bedroom with two of her children at a home in the 600 block of Northwest Ninth Avenue in Pompano Beach. Deputies said a man broke in through a window, pointed a gun at her head and ordered her to stand up before sexually abusing her. Her children slept through the assault and were not harmed, authorities said.
The attacker fled with the victim’s purse, leaving behind critical DNA evidence, BSO said. Analysts in 2009 developed a profile of an unknown man from semen recovered at the scene, but without a match in national databases, the case went cold.
New 2025 DNA tests point to a suspect
In 2025, as part of a renewed review using modern forensic tools, BSO’s Crime Lab reanalyzed the evidence and sought a familial DNA search through FDLE’s database. The results pointed to a known offender who was closely related to the suspect. Detectives then identified Marcellus as the likely perpetrator.
In October, investigators learned Marcellus had traveled to Haiti and was returning to South Florida later that month. When he arrived at Miami International Airport on Oct. 20, deputies served a DNA search warrant. Testing confirmed his DNA matched the evidence collected from the victim, BSO said.
Marcellus was arrested on Oct. 28 and booked into the Broward County Main Jail.
