SUMMIT TWP — Authorities credited DNA evidence for helping to solve last year’s suspected rape of a 12-year-old girl at a home in the township.

More than 10 months after the alleged crime, state police Monday arrested 35-year-old Manuel Robert Moreno.

Investigators believe Moreno attacked the girl as she slept in her bedroom Dec. 5, 2012.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned the suspect on felony charges of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a child, sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault.

He is being held in the Butler County Prison $100,000 bail.

His attorney, Joseph Kecskemethy, listed in court papers, could not be reached for comment.

Police said they began investigating the case after speaking to the girl at Butler Memorial Hospital, where her mother had taken her just hours after the suspected assault.

The child told investigators that she was awake in bed about 2:20 a.m. when she heard footsteps in the hallway, according to court documents.

Moments later, she said an unknown man entered the bedroom and attacked her.

The man left the room, but not before leaving behind a cigarette butt. That discarded cigarette found behind the girl’s bed would apparently prove key to cracking the case.

Forensic test results May 28 showed a link between a DNA sample taken from the girl and the cigarette butt, documents said.

The results were enough for police to obtain a search warrant that allowed them to collect a DNA sample from Moreno, who had left the area since the alleged assault.

Investigators said a state police crime lab report Sept. 12 revealed a match between DNA taken from the defendant and the girl.

A preliminary hearing for Moreno is scheduled for Oct. 29 at Stoughton’s office in Chicora.