A man from North Carolina was given a 40-year prison sentence after admitting to committing rape in Fayetteville 31 years ago and entering a guilty plea on Monday.
In 2020, Fayetteville police suspected three individuals were involved in the 1992 rape of a woman near a cemetery building on Ramsey Street.
DNA Sample Helps To Identify Suspect
The victim was knocked unconscious, transported to a different location, and raped as she walked to her car after cleaning offices nearby.
The hood of the woman’s car was spray-painted with 3 Horsemen, and the vehicle, with her inside, was abandoned in a pond. The woman survived and spent the subsequent years seeking justice.
In 2006, the Fayetteville Police Department sent a sexual kit from the woman’s case to the North Carolina State Crime Lab, according to a press release from the office of Attorney General Josh Stein.
Several advances in DNA technology have enabled improved testing since the commission of the offense. The crime lab discovered a DNA sample that was uploaded to the CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, after performing additional tests.
In 2015, the case was reopened with funding from the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Grant of the Bureau of Justice Assistance for Fiscal Year 2015. The resumption of efforts to solve the case was followed by a new lull.
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Justice Was Served After 31 Years
In October 2020, however, the department was notified by the state crime lab that DNA matched that of Roy Junior Proctor, who was 46 years old at the time.
In November 2020, the Cold Case Unit of the Fayetteville Police Department disclosed that an arrest had been made in relation to 1992. The attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, rape, sex offense, and theft charges against Roy Junior Proctor were filed in November 2020.
Proctor pled guilty on Monday, according to the Fayetteville Police Department, and was given two concurrent 40-year sentences for second-degree rape, second-degree sex offense, second-degree kidnapping, common law robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill.
Stein claims that 31 years of preparation went into this week’s delivery of justice. This case is a reminder that we must use all available resources to apprehend those responsible for sexual assault, remove them from society, and ensure justice for those who have been victimized and survived, regardless of how long it takes.
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