Fayetteville, N.C. — The Fayetteville Police Department announced Wednesday that its Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit made a twelfth arrest in connection to a decades-old crime.
The unit started in 2015 after the department received a $363,000 grant. Part of that money is now being used to test DNA samples from 100 cold cases that date back to 1984.
While the money has already helped solved a dozen cases, one rape victim, whose attacker remains at large, says the memory of her sexual assault in 1992 remains very fresh.
“Then, the next memory that I have is being on the ground being beaten in my face,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified. “Kicked and raped, and I knew he was trying to break my neck to kill me.”
She was cleaning the office at a cemetery on Ramsey Street when, she told police, three men approached her from behind, threw her in a trunk of a car and raped her at another location.
Her case is one of nearly 1,000 cases that Lt. John Somerindyke’s Cold Case Unit is trying to solve.
“As part of our last grant we received, we had a cold case victim advocate who we put in contact with all of our cold case victims, and he has been a great asset to our team,” Somerindyke said. “He also gets these cold case victims some therapy and counseling.”
According to Somerindyke, the money is making a difference. His team has arrested 12 suspects to date, including 57-year-old Dallas Walker.
“We charged (Walker) with three sexual assaults,” he said. “One in 2005 and two in 2009. We suspect there were several others he has possibly been involved in and probably several others where the victims never reported it.”
The unit has the funding to test 100 of the rape kits, but Somerindyke said he is already working on getting more money.
“We have already started applying for the 2016 National Assault Kit Initiative Grant,” he said. “We have a grasp on what we have in our evidence room now, and we are going to request funding to test every single assault kit that we have in our evidence room.”
,The Fayetteville Police Department announced Wednesday that its Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit made a twelfth arrest in connection to a decades-old crime.
To read more from our amazing friends at WRAL, click here.