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Press Release

Grand jury indicts local doctor on false statements, writings charges related to 1989 rape

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio
Court documents detail 2 additional alleged victims; law enforcement continues to seek information in Ohio, Colorado & Kansas

DAYTON, Ohio – A federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment today against a Sycamore Township man whose DNA implicated him in a 1989 rape.

Frederick Louis Tanzer, 66, is charged with four counts of making false statements to an agency or officer of the United States and two counts of making or using a false document or writing. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison. These federal crimes are prosecutable even if an underlying offense has passed the statute of limitations.

Tanzer has been in custody since his arrest on Dec. 11 and will remain in custody pending trial.

According to court documents, Tanzer’s DNA was confirmed by a forensic laboratory as a match to the DNA the rapist had left at the 1989 crime scene, where the victim was violently raped over the course of five and a half hours in her condominium on Creighton Place in Cincinnati after arriving home from work.

It is alleged that Tanzer made several materially false statements to federal investigators when approached about the rape last week, including denying having seen or interacted with the victim on the date she was raped.

Tanzer is a medical doctor who has lived and practiced medicine in Ohio, Kansas and Colorado.

According to a recent filing relating to detention, during a search warrant executed on Dec. 11 at Tanzer’s home, investigators located restraints, a gag, a black hat and zip ties together in Tanzer’s dresser.

The same filing also detailed that two additional victims have been identified who were repeatedly drugged and raped by Tanzer, including as recently as two and a half years ago in Kansas. The document includes information about Tanzer drugging the women in order to have sex with them without their consent and about Tanzer using a burner phone to engage with sex workers when he traveled for work for weeks or months at a time.

Federal law enforcement officials ask the public to consider the circumstances of the rapes, and the locations where Tanzer has lived, and to contact the FBI with any similar information at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cincinnati Division; and Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa A. Theetge announced the arrest. The IRS-Criminal Investigation Cincinnati Field Office assisted in the investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly K. Rossi and Julie D. Garcia are representing the United States in this case.

An indictment merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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Updated December 20, 2024