For months, doubt clouded the investigation into whether a convicted serial rapist from Dauphin County was telling the truth.

Wilbur C. Brown II claimed in a November jailhouse interview that he sexually assaulted two women, the first in East Hempfield Township in June 2000 and the second in Mount Joy Township about a year later.

 At the same time, Charles "Ted" Dubbs, a 43-year-old man from Elizabethtown, was sitting in a state prison after being convicted of those two assaults in 2002.

Investigators with the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office had questions. Was Brown credible? Why was he sometimes accurate and other times wrong about details of the assaults?

But the essential question they had to answer was whether the wrong man was in prison. Dubbs had been imprisoned since his arrest in 2001.

Investigators answered all those questions as best they could and Tuesday a county judge dropped all charges against Dubbs, who walked out of the county courthouse a free man.

Wednesday, the four prosecutors involved in the investigation — assistant district attorneys Kelly Sekula and Susan Moyer, county Detective Joseph Geesey and District Attorney Donald Totaro — talked about the case.

"I've been here 16 years," said Moyer, a veteran of high-profile investigations, including the Laurie Show murder and the Nickel Mines shootings, "and I've never experienced a case like this."

Brown's November confession could not be relied upon without further inquiry, which is why prosecutors looked hard at the serial rapist's credibility, especially because for two years he had steadfastly denied committing the assaults.

"His initial confession had to be looked at with some degree of skepticism," Sekula said.

For at least three years, Brown had sexually assaulted women across Pennsylvania, including two attacks in Lancaster County in 2002 and 2003. He was arrested in August 2005 and is now serving a 50- to 100-year sentence in state prison.

The November confession, made to Dauphin County investigators, included inaccurate details. For example, Brown said he did not think he exposed himself and forced the women to touch him sexually (the attacker did). He denied using a knife in one assault (the attacker did) and erroneously described a stick used in the other attack.

Brown's confession prompted Dubbs to ask for a new trial in February. It also moved the district attorney's office to interview Brown.

Before questioning Brown, the investigative team talked to prosecutors in other counties who had dealt with him, the victims and witnesses who testified during Dubbs' 2002 trial.

"You need to have your case locked down before you talk to Mr. Brown," Moyer said.

Geesey added, "That way, he can't dance around you."

Had the case been retried before investigators talked to Brown, Dubbs could still be behind bars, prosecutors said.

"Until (last Friday), one victim adamantly believed Mr. Dubbs was her attacker and would testify (that way) at any retrial," Moyer said. "She didn't back off that."

The turning point came this month.

On Sept. 5, Geesey and Sekula finally interviewed Brown, videotaping the nearly two-hour question-and-answer session. Brown described the crimes during the first hour as Geesey and Sekula revealed no details about the attacks. According to the investigators, Brown was at times elusive and often inaccurate about details of the attacks.

"I drew him out" in the second hour, Geesey said. "I asked him, 'Why should I believe you?' He, in getting mad at me, blurted out details he had never given out before."

Details such as what the stroller the second victim was pushing before she was attacked looked like, how the attacker and victim landed in a ditch during a struggle in the first assault and physical descriptions of the two women. It was information only the attacker and the victims would know.

"The details he provided were explicit and accurate," Totaro said.

During the interview, Brown revealed he wrote a letter to his mother in October 2005. He wrote it at a time he still was denying involvement in the two attacks, prosecutors said. The letter remained unsealed because Brown did not want it read unless he died in prison.

As investigators waited to get their hands on the letter, the victims separately watched Brown's videotaped interview, one as recently as Monday. Afterward, they were no longer sure Dubbs was their attacker.

Meanwhile, Brown's letter arrived Monday. In it, he confessed to attacking the two women.

The events between Sept. 5 and Monday accelerated the case to the point where prosecutors requested Tuesday the charges against Dubbs be dropped.

"We have to set aside emotions and make a decision based on the law and the facts," Totaro said.

Both victims cannot say with certainty whether it was Dubbs or Brown who attacked them. They simply are not sure, prosecutors said.

"Our gravest concern is, we are not absolutely certain" which one is the attacker, Moyer said.

"We do not believe anyone else is out there committing these crimes," Geesey added.

For the investigators, there is frustration that no one will be punished for the crimes. The case against Dubbs is over because of the victims' doubt, and the five-year statute of limitations has expired, meaning Brown cannot be charged.

"I'm disappointed for the (victims) that we can't prosecute this," Totaro said. "But the resolve of this office is to seek justice. That's what we'll do in each case."

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com