Miller had her sign her name on the back of the photograph, then got the I.D. number, checked it against the record and wrote down, “William S. Milligan.” It was an old mug shot.

She then slipped the identified photograph three quarters of the way back in a tray Polly Newton had not yet looked through. She, Boxerbaum, a detective named Brush and Officer Bessell went into the room to join Polly.

Nikki Miller felt Polly must have known they were waiting for her to pick out one of the photographs in that tray. Polly fingered the cards, flipping them carefully, and when she reached the halfway point, Miller found herself growing tense. If Polly picked out the same mug shot, they had the Campus Rapist.

Polly stopped at Milligans picture, then went past it. Miller felt the tension in her own shoulders and arms. Then Polly turned the photos back and looked again at the young man with the muttonchop whiskers. “Boy, that sure looks like him,” she said, “but I can’t say for sure.”

Boxerbaum was hesitant about filing for a warrant for Milligan’s arrest. Even though Donna West had made a positive identification, it bothered him that the picture was three years old. He wanted to wait for the fingerprint check. Detective Brush took Milligans I.D. down to the first-floor Bureau of Criminal Identification to match his fingerprints against the ones lifted from Polly’s car.

Nikki Miller was annoyed at the delay. She felt they had a good start on the man, and she wanted to go after him. But since her victim, Polly Newton, hadn’t made a positive identification, she had no alternative but to wait. Two hours later the report came up. The print of the right index finger lifted from the outside glass of the Corvette’s passenger door and the right ring finger and right palm were Milligan’s. All fair-value prints. A ten-point match. Enough to take to court.

Boxerbaum and Kleberg still hesitated. They wanted to be absolutely sure before going after a suspect and asked that an expert be called in to evaluate the prints.

Since Milligan’s prints matched those lifted from her victims car, Nikki Miller decided to go ahead and file for kidnapping, robbery and rape. She would get a warrant for his arrest, bring him in, and then Polly would be able to look at him in a lineup.

Boxerbaum checked with his chief, Kleberg, who insisted the university police should wait for the expert. Shouldn’t take more than another hour or two. Better to be certain. It was eight that evening when the outside expert agreed that the prints were Milligan’s.

Boxerbaum said, “Okay, I’ll file for kidnapping. That’s the only crime actually committed on campus—our jurisdiction. The rape happened somewhere else.” He checked out the information that had come in from the Bureau of Criminal Identification: William Stanley Milligan, a twenty-two-year-old ex-convict, had been paroled six months earlier from Ohio’s Lebanon Correctional Institution. His last-known address was 933 Spring Street, Lancaster, Ohio.