Sketches show the suspect in a 1996 sexual assault. Last year, the New Westminster Police Department announced it had identified the suspect as a 48-year-old Vancouver man. He was charged with multiple offences, including aggravated sexual assault; breaking and entering; robbery; unlawful confinement; attempting to choke to overcome resistance; and uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm. Photograph By Contributed, Record files
The man accused of beating and sexually assaulting an 80-year-old New Westminster woman more than 20 years ago is dead.
Dorothy Darnel was asleep in her bed in the early morning hours of Oct. 4, 1996, when a man broke into her apartment at 310 Eighth St. and attacked her. The injuries he inflicted to her head and face were so severe they rendered her unconscious, according to police.
Darnel survived the attack, but she never returned to her Eighth Street apartment. She would go on to speak at several public safety forums about her experience, according to police.
Darnel passed away in December 2015. She was 99 years old.
The investigation in 1996 was led by eight full-time officers, and despite releasing a sketch of the suspect, who had been spotted fleeing Darnel’s apartment building by responding officers, he was never identified. There was also a $12,000 reward for information leading to an arrest posted by the New Westminster Police Board and an anonymous donor.
But it took a matching DNA sample to finally uncover the suspect.
Last spring, the New Westminster Police Department announced it had arrested the man it believed had attacked Darnel.
James Gray, 48, was taken into custody April 29, 2017.
Since his arrest, Gray had been remanded to a pre-trial centre. Last week, the police department was notified that Gray was dead. He’d died in custody.
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Gray will not face these matters in a court of law,” said spokesperson police Sgt. Jeff Scott. “However we are satisfied with the hard work of many investigators, which advanced this file to a stage where we were able to arrest and charge Mr. Gray for the attack on Ms. Darnell back in 1996.”
Gray’s death is being investigated by the B.C. Coroners Service, but the cause is not considered suspicious, according to Scott.
