Rape suspect dies in apparent suicide

Baltimore County police are investigating the death of a man who was charged last month in a 1987 rape case.

Police were called to the Middle River home of Darrell Gene Haynes, 45, about 1:20 p.m. yesterday. They found Haynes dead of a gunshot wound to the chest and a weapon near the body, said Officer Shawn Vinson, a police spokesman. Police said the wound appeared to be self-inflicted and that the state medical examiner's office is to make a determination today.

Haynes was arrested and charged June 24 in the 1987 rape of a 21-year-old woman in Dundalk, police said. Evidence was linked to DNA in a statewide database for convicted felons, police said; Haynes was a registered child sex offender who had submitted a DNA sample.

He was released from the county detention center June 27 after posting a $100,000 bond, police said.