Lynn man gets 18-20 for rape of Salem woman

SALEM – A former Lynn man already serving a life sentence for the murder of a teenager in Malden admitted brutally raping a 22-year-old Salem woman in 1990 received 18-to-20-years in state prison.Thomas Crouse, 42, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in Salem Superior Court to a charge of rape.Judge David A. Lowy sentenced him to the agreed recommendation offered by Assistant District Attorney Gerald P. Shea and defense lawyer Carmine P. Lepore.?My family rallied around me to provide me the strength to move forward and not look back, so I could heal and not continue to be a victim,” the now 40-year-old victim told Lowy from the stand.She went saying she prays for Crouse and hopes he finds peace and heals enough to make his world in prison a better place for him and everyone around him.The victim praised the Salem police detectives Jim Gauthier and Jimmy Page saying “without their tenacity, I wouldn?t be here today finally feeling some closure to this part of my life.”Lowy described the incident as “horrific” as he imposed the punishment, describing the pain the victim went through and how she showed “remarkable strength and redemption.”On April 25, 1990, the then 22-year-old woman was unloading groceries to bring into her first-floor studio apartment at 149 Derby St., in Salem, when a man, later identified as Crouse, came up to her and asked to use her phone to call for a tow truck because his car had broken down.He told her he was a private investigator and was holding a police radio.Once inside her apartment, he tossed her onto her futon, pulled her clothes off and raped her.He then tied her with her dog leash, put a facecloth into her mouth to smother her screams, warned her not to tell, saying he knew where she lived, and said he was depressed and didn?t want to go back to jail.He left the scene, leaving the door part open with her laying half nude and tied on the futon.She eventually freed herself, called her boyfriend and then authorities. She was taken to Salem Hospital and a rape kit was done, but the case went unsolved for some period of time.The victim told authorities she had never known Crouse or been in contact with him before.She gave police a very detailed description of her sexual attacker, identifying a big black cat tattoo on his thigh.In the meantime, Crouse was convicted of killing a 14-year-old Malden girl, then setting a fire in the Malden condominium complex where he was living to cover up the crime. He then buried her body in a grave in Hookset, New Hampshire. A jogger came upon the body months later.Evidence found in Malden and at the grave, apparently linked Crouse to the crime and he was arrested in Swampscott where he was living at the time.Crouse also reportedly told his cellmate he had raped the girl before stabbing her to death.Because of that 2000 conviction, he was required to provide a DNA sample to the state database.Meanwhile, the 15-year limitation statute on the Salem case was closing.But detectives Gauthier and Page, still troubled by the unsolved case, tried again, hoping because of the advances in DNA, they might get some leads in the Salem rape and they did, linking Crouse to the crime.It also was learned that Crouse had a tattoo of a big large black cat on his thigh, which the victim identified.Following the plea, Shea emphasized the exceptional work done by Gauthier and Page on the case and how without their insistence it probably would not had been solved.The sentence imposed for the Salem rape will run together with the life sentence Crouse is serving for the Suffolk County murder.Crouse also had another rape case lodged against him in Florida involving the sexual assault of a Texas woman, but the case was dismissed because the victim choose not to go forward on the case.