Volusia detectives solve 2013 sexual battery case thanks to DNA match

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Volusia County investigators have made an arrest in connection with a sexual battery case from 2013, thanks to a DNA match.

Deputies said Cole Eben was the man that attacked a woman on Dec 29 2013 near Daytona Beach Shores.

According to deputies, Daytona Shores police and Volusia Beach Safety officers found the victim naked, with scrapes on her legs and no recollection of what happened to her.

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At the time, investigators said witnesses claimed to have seen the victim and Eben walking on the beach the evening before but with no evidence to connect him to the crime, he was not arrested.

Detectives submitted a sexual assault kit to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for processing but a match wasn’t found.

Then in 2019, detectives learned that a DNA sample submitted from another case from 2015 matched that of an inmate serving time in an Illinois prison.

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That prisoner was Cole Eben.

So in 2020 detectives requested a warrant to obtain DNA from Eben, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the search warrant wasn’t executed until April 2021.

When detectives got the results in June, they learned the DNA profile matched.

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With the evidence, Volusia detectives were able to charge Eben with sexual battery.

Eben is currently in prison in Illinois for the sexual battery of a child.

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