EDITOR’S NOTE: This article contains details of sexual assault. It may be disturbing to some readers.
NEW CASTLE, Ind. — A discovery under the bed of a woman who endured a terrifying sexual assault led police to the suspect.
That’s according to charging documents filed Tuesday against Jose David Diaz Solano.
A Henry County deputy said he was flagged down by a woman around 5:20 a.m. near 18th and Broad streets on Saturday, April 15. The woman told the deputy she had been raped and wasn’t sure if the suspect was still in her home.
According to the police report, the woman said she was woken up around 4 a.m. by a bright light and realized a man was standing over her. She said she tried to call 911, but the man knocked her phone out of her hand and put a boxcutter to her neck before raping her.
Officers said they arrived to find an empty house with splatters of blood on the back deck and in the hallway of the house. A boxcutter with dried blood and a “large amount of blood” was found in a bed in the victim’s bedroom.
The woman had several superficial injuries and told police she believed most of the blood was from the rapist cutting himself as they were fighting over control of the boxcutter.
The survivor told police she remembering seeing her attacker’s wallet on the floor at one point, and she thought she kicked it under the bed as she ran away.
When New Castle police surveyed the room, they said they found a wallet underneath the bed with three different ID cards for Jose David Diaz Solano. They also found the woman’s phone with what appeared to be dried blood covering it.
According to charging documents, the woman believed Solano was an acquaintance of her daughter.
When investigators located Solano, they reportedly saw dried blood on the driver’s side door of his car and smudges of blood on his clothes.
During his interview, officers found Solano’s statements to be inconsistent and contradictory. At one point, documents show he stated he did not the rape the woman because if he were to rape someone — he would pick a younger and more attractive victim.
Solano was charged with rape, burglary, battery, criminal confinement, interference with the reporting of a crime and intimidation.
