FAYETTEVILLE, N.C, (WNCN) — Detectives with the Fayetteville Police Department’s Cold Case Sexual Assault Unit have made an arrest in connection with a 1997 sexual assaults cold case.

Police say 55-year-old Linford Deamoris Moore raped a woman in Oct. 1997.

Investigators says the victim was asleep in her home when she was awakened by a then-unidentified man shining a flashlight in her face. Police say the suspect placed a bag over her head and sexually assault her. 

Fayetteville police say the case was investigated but went unsolved. The case was reopened after the victim saw a 2015 press conference awarding the Fayetteville Police Department the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s FY2016 National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Grant.

Using DNA technology not available in 1997 and collaborating with Parabon Nanolabsa, Inc., the NC State Crime Laboratory, analysts with the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, and other members of Fayetteville Police Department’s Sexual Assault Cold Case Multidisciplinary Team, Moore was identified as a suspect.  

He was charged with first degree rape, first degree kidnapping, and felony breaking and entering. 

On Wednesday, Moore was found in Hope Mills and arrested by members of the Fayetteville Police Department’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Team and Hope Mills Police Department. He is currently being held at the Cumberland County Jail under a $250,000 secured bond. 

If you have been, or are, a victim of sexual assault, victim advocates from the Phoenix Center work with detectives to ensure victims receive appropriate care and access to resources. The Phoenix Center can be reached by phone at 910-485-7273. 

Anyone with information about any sexual assault case is asked to contact the Fayetteville Police Department’s Special Victim’s Unit at (910) 433-1851 or Crimestoppers at (910) 483-8477.