How Durham is making new arrests in old rape cases

A woman was unloading her car around midnight in the parking lot of a northern Durham apartment complex on Nov. 10, 2007.

Suddenly a man forced her into the passenger seat, drove the car a short distance and sexually assaulted her, police said. He then drove back toward the complex on Willow Creek Circle, got out and ran.

Nearly 14 years later, the Durham Police Department arrested 38-year-old Isadore Sullivan Jr. of Durham last week and charged him with second-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree sexual offense.

The break came after the sexual assault kit in the case was submitted for forensic testing in 2019.

The DNA in the kit was entered into a system that lets law enforcement agencies see each other’s evidence.

Investigators were able to match the DNA from the case with two others out of Florida. A woman was sexually assaulted in February 2007 in Key West and another was sexually assaulted in Fort Lauderdale in May that year.

Police also were able to use evidence from a 2018 Durham case in which Sullivan was charged with attempted rape and kidnapping to confirm he was a suspect in the 2007 case as well.

The evidence against Sullivan came from one of more than 1,700 backlogged sexual assault kits Durham reported in 2018 through the N.C. Department of Justice Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.

Since then Durham has been using two federal grants totaling just over $1.5 million to help investigate cold case sexual assaults and submit more kits for testing.

As of the end of February 2021, 270 backlogged kits had been tested, with 73 hits in the DNA database. Thirteen people have been charged in 17 cases.

During a news conference Tuesday, Lt. Stephen Vaughan said the number of kits Durham can submit for testing is constrained by the capacity of Bode Technology, the laboratory that police use in Virginia. The N&O called Bode Technology to learn more but did not receive a response by Wednesday afternoon.

New rape kits are not added to the backlog, Vaughan said. They go to the police department’s Special Victims Unit and are tested immediately for DNA left behind by a suspect, he said..

Arrest made in 2015 assault

Durham police also made a recent arrest in a 2015 sexual assault cold case.

Early on May 31 that year, a masked man with a knife broke into the woman’s home and sexually assaulted her, police said.

The DNA matched that of Carlos Dominguez-Aguiar, 27, who was charged with first-degree rape and first-degree burglary, police said.

Dominguez-Aguiar was already in the custody of U.S. Marshals in Texas for illegal reentry into the country. He is set to be released in August. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on him, which would give the agency 48 hours to arrest him after his release. He will be indicted on charges of rape and burglary after he is released, according to Durham police.

“These cases may be old, but our view is they are definitely not forgotten,” Vaughan said of Durham’s sexual assault cold cases.

“For that to occur to someone and have to live through that for the rest of your life without answers, that’s what drives me every day,” he said.

Community resources

• Durham Police Department Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit and Special Victims Unit — 919-560-4440
• Durham Crisis Response Center — https://www.durhamcrisisresponse.org
• N.C. Coalition Against Sexual Assault — List of programs statewide: nccasa.org

This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 2:31 PM.