25 years after SC boy was sexually assaulted at knifepoint, DNA leads to an arrest

More than two decades after a 10-year-old boy was sexually assaulted at knifepoint behind a South Carolina shopping center, DNA evidence has led to a convicted rapist serving time for another sex assault, according to police.

Tomongo James William McCord, 43, of Ridgeville, was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, the Charleston Police Department said in a release Thursday.

The alleged sex assault happened Aug. 10, 1993, according to police. The 10-year-old victim was playing in a wooded area behind a shopping center at 2049 Savannah Highway when a man he had never seen before approached him and asked him to help look for something.

A short time later, the stranger pulled out a knife and sexually assaulted the boy, police said.

The case went unsolved for more than two decades until last year, when the Charleston Police Department’s Family Violence Unit reopened the investigation and submitted evidence to the State Law Enforcement Division for additional analysis, according to police.

A DNA profile obtained from evidence was run through the Combined DNA Index System — or CODIS, a nationwide DNA database, police said. The profile matched the DNA of McCord, who was being held in MacDougall Correctional Institution.

McCord is serving a combined 100 years on convictions for first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping and strong-arm robbery, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections. He was convicted in 1997 of breaking into a Charleston County home, raping and robbing a woman in 1993, reports WCIV.

He will have a bond hearing Thursday on the newest assault charge, according to Charleston police.

First-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor carries a minimum 25-year prison sentence and up to life in prison, under South Carolina law.

This story was originally published January 24, 2019 at 2:22 PM.