Cayce Rape Suspect Arrested, Identified

Cayce (WLTX) - Cayce Department of Public Safety officials have named and charged the suspect in a violent rape from last week.

SLED agents said Wednesday morning that DNA evidence taken from the crime scene confirmed that Hector Camo Villafeurte, 29, was responsible for the crime.


Hector Camo Villafeurte

He is charged with kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and assault and battery with intent to kill.

"I made a promise that we would get him and that was the last promise I made to my daughter," the victim's father said. "She's always gotten everything that she wanted."

Officers say that Villafeurte has been in custody since Monday. Officers say he is in the country illegally, and he was working at a construction site on Dixiana Road when he was arrested.

"It's a relief," the woman's father said. "Part of my heart's out of the ditch, there's just a a small piece that will always be there, but part of it's out of the ditch and we can move on."

Investigators say he had an apartment near Charlotte, and that they recovered the shirt he wore during the crime there. When he worked in this area, he stayed at a motel on the Charleston Highway.

Last Friday between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., a woman was raped as she was walking along Knox Abbott Drive. Investigators say a man got out of a cab and proceeded to punch the woman repeatedly. Officers say the man then sexually assaulted her and took a cab from the scene.

Investigators say the victim was targeted randomly.

"I don't think this is his first time," said Cayce DPS Chief Charles McNair. "I have no evidence to prove any different but this is, in my opinion, not something that you do at the spur of the moment."

The victim had surgery Wednesday to repair her cheekbone and jaw.

"Right now we've got to move on with our recovery and our lives and get things taken care of," the woman's father added. "We just don't have to worry about anybody else having to worry about this monster anymore."

(Hear What the Victim's Father Says) News19 is not releasing the identity of the victim because of the nature of this case.

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=62245