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DNA match leads to conviction in 25-year-old cold case in Forsyth County

Sexual assault evidence collection kit
Gerry Broome
/
AP
More than two decades after the sexual assault, law enforcement officers found a DNA match from the North Carolina State Crime Lab and the victim’s evidence kit, connecting David Eric Mills to the crime.

There's finally closure in a 25-year-old cold case in Forsyth County.

According to the District Attorney’s office, a masked man broke into a Wake Forest University student’s home, threatened her at knifepoint and sexually assaulted her in April of 2000.

The victim contacted the Winston-Salem Police Department after the attack and underwent a sexual assault nurse examination.

More than two decades later, officers found a DNA match from the North Carolina State Crime Lab and the victim’s evidence kit, connecting David Eric Mills to the crime.

The trial on the case began and ended last week. A jury found Mills guilty of first-degree kidnapping and sexual assault. He was sentenced to at least 43 years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.

In the release, District Attorney Jim O’Neill said he was glad to “finally achieve justice” for the victim in this case.

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.