VIRGINIA BEACH — Twenty five years after a woman reported being abducted from a Virginia Beach parking lot and sexually assaulted, police are testing DNA that could lead to the arrest of her accused assailant.
The woman told the Virginia Beach Police Department that she was abducted while walking to her car in a parking lot located at 1152 Virginia Beach Blvd. She said that a man she’d previously been spending time with overtook her from behind and forced her into his nearby truck, according to documents filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.
The woman said he drove her to another location where he allegedly beat her, stole $30 from her pockets, sexually assaulted her with his hands and forced her to perform oral sex on him, court records state.
After he was done, the man left the woman at the location of the alleged sexual assault. After a “short period of time” she left the area and reported the assault to the VBPD. She also submitted herself to a rape kit at Virginia Beach General Hospital where officials collected DNA evidence, according to court documents.
Police logged the rape kit into their property and evidence department on Sept. 25, 1992. It stayed there for nearly 15 years before it was resubmitted to the Virginia Division of Forensic Science for a DNA analysis with updated technology on Feb. 17, according to court documents.
Police also ran the results through the Virginia DNA Data Bank and found that it appeared to match up with a 54-year-old Virginia Beach man. In August, the VBPD filed a search warrant for a cheek swab sample from the man’s mouth, and the analysis of that DNA is pending results.
The man has not been charged with the sexual assault as of Monday. Virginia Beach police declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
Correction: This article original stated an incorrect number of years since the sexual assault allegedly occurred.
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