Investigators with the Columbia Police Department’s (CPD) Special Victim’s Unit (SVU) have active arrest warrants for a man wanted in connection with a 2010 criminal sexual conduct investigation.
Police Chief W. H. ‘Skip’ Holbrook announces that 51-year-old James Wayne Ingersoll will be charged with Criminal Sexual Conduct – First Degree and Kidnapping. Ingersoll is currently housed at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Detention Center after being arrested on May 4, 2023, by members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Violent Crime Apprehension Team (VCAT).
A NC judge has set Ingersoll’s bond at $600,000. Since Ingersoll refused to waive extradition, a CPD member of the United States Marshal’s Service’s Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force is in the process of obtaining a Governor’s extradition warrant for Ingersoll’s arrest to face charges in Columbia.
CPD Investigation:
On March 13, 2010, Ingersoll allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 25-year-old female from the 300 block of Harden Street.
After the crime, the victim went to the hospital where the suspect’s DNA was collected from a sexual assault kit; that evidence was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Despite those efforts, there was no DNA match, until recently.
Investigation Connection:
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) in North Carolina has been investigating a sexual assault case from 1994. A DNA sample was taken from the female victim at that time. Additional testing of the evidence was conducted in 2018 and 2019. The testing in 2019 proved a case-to-case match with the CPD investigation; however, a suspect or person of interest was not identified.
Advancing technology earlier this month, CMPD utilized ‘forensic genetic genealogy’ to aid in the identification of a person of interest in its 1994 sexual assault investigation.
Recently, a DNA sample from the suspect was obtained and submitted to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Crime Laboratory for testing and comparison.
As a result, the DNA sample matched the DNA samples initially obtained in both sexual assault investigations, thus naming Ingersoll as the suspect in the CMPD and CPD crimes.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) aided CPD with the investigation.
All persons arrested/charged are presumed innocent until or unless proven guilty in a court of law.