Done in by DNA – ‘Peeping Tom’ principal found guilty of rape

A former school principal accused of peering into the windows of several South Jersey homes was found guilty by a jury in a violent 2014 rape after DNA connected him to both incidents.

A Middlesex County jury decided the fate of Danny McEaddy, 40, of Sicklerville who was the principal of Hillcrest Elementary School in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania in 2020. He went on to become principal at the Freedom Charter School in Camden through the 2022 school year.

In 2022, McEaddy was charged with burglary and invasion of privacy in connection with several incidents of peering into windows in the Sicklerville section of Winslow Township.

After McEaddy's arrest, his DNA was added to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). It matched DNA recovered from the rape victim's undergarments, according to the criminal complaint.

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Threatened with death

During the attack in the Keasbey section of Woodbridge, McEaddy rang the doorbell and then forced his way into the apartment of a woman. The woman said she did not know McEaddy.

Once inside the apartment, he dragged the woman to the bedroom, put a blanket over her head and punched her repeatedly in the head, threatening to kill her if she told anyone about the incident, according to the complaint.

The police report described her injuries as a bloody mouth, redness, and swelling to the left side of her face and nose, and pain in her elbow.

A neighbor called 911 after he was woken up by loud bangs, crying, screaming and a woman saying “no.” The woman was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

The woman was given a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam, which includes a collection of DNA to be preserved as evidence.

The assault remained a cold case until after McEaddy's arrest.

McEaddy was convicted of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree burglary, second-degree sexual assault, third-degree aggravated assault, third-degree criminal restraint, and third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact.

McEaddy is scheduled to be sentenced on July 25.

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