DNA links 'peeping Tom' principal to Woodbridge. NJ rape

🔴 Investigators in the 2014 rape of a Woodbridge woman made a DNA hit

🔴 The rapist put a towel on the woman's head and punched her

🔴 McEaddy was charged with several "peeping Tom" incidents in 2022, leading to this cold-case charge

WOODBRIDGE — It was former school "peeping Tom" principal Danny McEaddy's DNA that connected him to a violent assault and rape of a woman that happened nine years before, investigators said.

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

After his arrest, his DNA was added to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) system. It was a match with the Woodbridge victim's DNA from saliva recovered from her undergarments in 2014, the criminal complaint says.

Danny McEaddy (Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office)

Attacked by a neighbor

During the attack on Sept. 21, 2014, in the Keasbey section of Woodbridge, the rapist 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, the rapist 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 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 on voyeur charges.

Danny McEaddy (Humans of Mama Africa - HOMA via Facebook) (Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office)

Former principal and superintendent

McEaddy was the principal of Hillcrest Elementary School in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania in 2020. In a video introducing himself to the school, he said he was a husband and father with 15 years of experience as an educator.

After a year, he became principal at the Freedom Charter School in Camden through the 2022 school year.

Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com

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