Nearly 10 years after a woman reported being raped at gunpoint, 26-year-old Chattanoogan Orlando Evans was arrested on Wednesday when a DNA test confirmed a match with a rape examination kit from the crime.
On Nov. 30, 2006, police responded to the 3900 block of Zinnia Street on a report of a home invasion and found two alleged victims inside.
The resident said he and his neighbor were at the home together when three people came into the home with covered faces and guns, demanding money.
He said his neighbor, a woman who will not be identified by the Times Free Press to protect her identity, was taken into another room.
The women told police that one of the intruders pushed her to the floor, demanded money and hit her around the head multiple times. He then covered her head with a jacket, dragged her to the bathroom and closed the door.
She said the man then threatened her with a revolver and said, “I’ll kill both of you, this is what … I’ll do.” The man then forced her to perform oral sex on him and raped her, she told police.
No suspects were identified during the initial investigation, but on Dec. 2, 2013, an investigator reported a DNA sample obtained from Evans was a match with evidence taken from the investigation’s rape kit.
Evans, a validated Skyline Piru gang member, is being held in the Hamilton County Jail on a $750,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court before General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom on Monday.