A student reported last week that she was robbed and sexually assaulted on West Campus Nov. 16.
The incident occurred between Wannamaker Dr. and Chapel Dr. Nov. 16 at about 10 p.m., said Assistant Chief Gloria Graham of the Duke University Police Department. She said the student reported that she was the victim of a strong-arm robbery and a second degree sexual offense.
The alleged attacker took an undisclosed amount of cash and the student’s DukeCard, Graham said. She described the suspect as a 5-foot-11-inch black male between 28 and 30 years old.
“We’re definitely going to investigate it because it’s not something that’s commonplace in our environment” she said, adding that the case is “high on [DUPD’s] priorities list.”
The victim initially reported the incident to a different campus office, which brought the report to DUPD, and Graham said the student reported the incident anonymously Nov. 23.
A DUPD incident report was not available for release Sunday.
Although Graham said the report is under “very active investigation,” she said she does not think it has a high likelihood of being solved.
She said the delayed report, the lack of available information and the victim’s reluctance for DUPD “to do much with it,” will make it difficult for investigators to make an arrest. Graham added that the description is also not very helpful to investigators because it describes a large portion of the local population.
Still, DUPD has an obligation to investigate the report, Graham said.
“We’re trying to determine exactly what happened so if there’s something else that we need to be doing or be concerned about we can take those precautions and ideally find out who did it, but we’re at the mercy of the individual who reported it, and we’re trying to get as much information as possible,” she said.
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