The anonymous tipster who led Vicksburg police to a suspect in a brutal and reportedly vindictive rape can expect to receive a $5,200 reward within weeks — and remain anonymous.

The process involves code numbers and cooperating banks, says Marti Morgan, regional director of Central Mississippi Crimestoppers, the organization coordinating the reward.

“Crimestoppers really works,” Morgan said Thursday by telephone. “It’s amazing. When a person calls in a tip, they are told: do not give me your name. I never know who they are. Not one person knows who they are.”

A tip to Crimestoppers provided information Vicksburg police needed to charge Eddie Lee Harris, 28, 1203 Second North St., with the Oct. 26 rape and burglary of a 55-year old disabled Drummond Street woman, Chief Walter Armstrong said.

Police had gone door-to-door conducting interviews, tested DNA samples from a dozen men and made a number of media appeals, but it was the announcement of an increase in reward money available anonymously through Crimestoppers that led to the key tip, Armstrong said.