DNA match solves Raleigh rape cold case, suspect arrested in Virginia

A preserved DNA sample from a December 2001 sexual assault in north Raleigh finally pointed detectives to Reginald Dwayne Taylor, 48, and brought a long-dormant case back to life after investigators linked him to evidence from two separate attacks. Raleigh police said the breakthrough came only after crime-scene evidence sat in storage for years, waiting for forensic testing strong enough to name a suspect.

The case began on Dec. 1, 2001, in the 7000 block of Mourning Dove Road. Investigators said a man confronted a male and female victim at gunpoint, forced both to undress, and then sexually assaulted the woman before fleeing. Detectives preserved evidence from the scene, including clothing, anticipating that DNA technology might eventually catch up with the case. That decision proved decisive decades later.

While reviewing the Raleigh file, detectives found a strikingly similar 2001 sexual assault in Charlotte. In that case, investigators said the suspect also held two victims at gunpoint before the sexual assault. Evidence from both scenes was sent to the North Carolina Department of Justice State Crime Lab, and on May 8, 2026, analysts reported a CODIS match that linked Taylor to both investigations.

Once the match came back, warrants followed. Raleigh police said Taylor was arrested in Virginia with help from U.S. Marshals Service deputies and personnel with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia. He now faces multiple serious charges tied to the Raleigh case, including first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense, two counts each of first-degree kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The arrest shows how much can change when old evidence is kept intact long enough for science to catch up. North Carolina’s DNA database now holds more than 380,000 profiles, and the State Crime Lab says it gets about 500 to 700 CODIS hits a year as investigative leads. Those hits can connect an unknown profile to an offender or arrestee profile, or tie one case in North Carolina to another elsewhere.

Court records also show Taylor had been charged in June 2005 with first-degree rape and first-degree sexual offense in a September 2004 Charlotte incident, but prosecutors dismissed those charges in October 2005. With Taylor now in custody and the Raleigh case tied to preserved evidence from Charlotte, a file that once sat frozen on Mourning Dove Road has turned into an active prosecution.