MESQUITE, Texas — Investigators with the Mesquite Police Department, along with their FBI partners, have announced that a 27-year-old man has been arrested this week in connection to a 2014 cold case where a disabled woman was raped, beaten, and left for dead.
The crime, which a police spokesperson described as 'savage' happened in the 3500 area of Moon on September 2 that year. The disabled woman was sexually assaulted and beaten unconscious, per police, and found by a neighbor who saw the victim lying near the side of her home.
"It was terrible; nothing like that had ever happened," Otis Goins told WFAA.
Goins has lived at his house on Moon since 1967 and remembers seeing police everywhere following the attack nearly a decade ago.
"Everybody was out in the street talking--they couldn't believe what happened. It was such a heinous crime; he beat her and beat her. I'm surprised she wasn't killed."
Investigators canvassed the area for days and even weeks, trying to get detailed suspect information, but they had no luck. Both doorbell and security cameras, easily accessible by the phone in your pocket, weren't as prevalent as they are now.
However, police were able to obtain a male DNA profile from a sex assault kit completed by the victim. That profile was run through criminal databases, but no luck.
"The lead investigator has always been tenacious in trying to get justice for the victim," Lt. Michael Kelly said.
The department started submitting the profile to third-party genealogy DNA databases in 2016, but no hits there either.
In 2022, that all changed, putting investigators on 27-year-old Jorge Post of Dallas. It took some time to narrow down to Post from his relatives to his nuclear family, a spokesperson said, and that a discarded item from him had to be tested to be sure his profile matched with the one taken from the sexual assault kit.
He was arrested on July 10 and charged with aggravated sexual assault of a disabled person. His bond is $5,000,000.
"I'm so thrilled they caught him," Goins said. "Closure means everything."