Calif. man arrested in ABQ sex crime
Suspect, 49, is charged with raping a woman after a party in 2012
A California man has been arrested in connection with a 2012 rape in southwest Albuquerque.
Robert Frye, 49, is charged with criminal sexual penetration and kidnapping in the assault. Frye was arrested in Greenfield, Indiana, and has since been booked into the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center.
It’s unclear why it took several years for charges to be brought against Frye.
Online court records show Frye was indicted on charges of criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping and aggravated battery against a household member in 2004 but those charges were dismissed for insufficient evidence.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, the case goes back several years when a woman told a therapist at the Amistad Group Home that she was raped on Aug. 23 following a house party near Edward Gonzalez Elementary, in the area of Tower and 86th SW.
When officers responded the woman told them she had fallen asleep at the house party after consuming a “large amount of alcohol.” When she woke up, a man with a rose tattoo on his chest forced himself on her and raped her.
Police say the woman had a sexual assault exam done, and DNA samples were taken but not entered into Combined DNA Index System until 2016.
According to the complaint, the DNA sample came back as a match for Frye within a few months, but the woman told a victim advocate that she was “not ready to pursue the case” at that time.
In March 2019 police say the woman agreed to pursue the case and set up a time to view a photo lineup. At the last moment, the woman decided not to look at the photos as is was “just too hard for her to look at him.”
According to the complaint Frye matches the woman’s descriptions of her rapist, down to the rose tattoo on his chest that is catalogued in his most recent booking sheet.