Raleigh man arrested, linked to 1998 Wake County rape case after DNA match

A Raleigh man faces a rape charge after new evidence surfaced from a 1998 case.

The Wake County Sheriff’s Office says, after a thorough investigation and consultation with the Wake County District Attorney’s Office, Darrell Jermaine Debnam, 48, was arrested and charged with second-degree rape.

The sheriff's office was told about an alleged sexual assault on Dec. 24, 1998.

"We are unable, at the time, to identify the suspect," Sgt. Wyatt Horton said. "At that time, the case went cold. We still continued to follow up on leads, however, nothing panned out."

A sexual assault kit was submitted for analysis as investigators continued to review evidence.

The case never closed, but recently the sheriff's office got a match on the DNA from that kit from the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database that is made up of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons.

That evidence linked Debnam to the 1998 assault, the sheriff's office said.

“No matter when a crime occurred, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office will not stop until it is closed,” Sheriff Willie Rowe said in a statement. “We are thankful for the advancement in technology that helped make this arrest possible. We hope this arrest provides some measure of peace for the survivor.”

Sgt. Horton said calls Debnam's arrest a "great milestone" for the sheriff's office.

"Law enforcement officers are using this system to bring back to life cases that we thought were going to go anywhere," he said. 

Horton encourages victims to not give up hope. He also has a message for people who may have never been caught after committing a crime years ago.

"We're going to find you; it's nothing but a matter of time. It may have happened years ago, but we will find you," he said.