Police arrested a man Sunday in connection with the sexual assault and kidnapping of an Evanston woman earlier this month.
Police said they caught Anthony Darnell McNeal, 27, by tracking calls he allegedly made with the woman’s cell phone. This led them to the 7000 block of South Cregier Avenue in Chicago, McNeal’s last known residence. McNeal, who is on parole for a 1999 burglary in Chicago, was taken into custody after police saw him leaving a home on the block, according to Deputy Chief Joe Bellino of Evanston Police Department.
Police charged McNeal with aggravated kidnapping, home invasion, armed robbery and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault. He is being held without bond, pending a court appearance on Friday at Circuit Court in Skokie.
An unidentified 22-year-old woman who lives in an apartment building on the 900 block of Sherman Avenue told police that her ordeal started at 7:55 a.m. Sept. 9, when her doorbell rang and she opened the door without first checking who was on the other side.
“She thought it was her husband,” Bellino said. “He just left, and she thought he forgot something and was returning.”
Instead of her husband, the woman encountered a stranger whom she later identified as McNeal. He asked her if someone lived in her building, and after she turned around to go back into the apartment, the man put a knife to her throat and forced her into the apartment, Bellino said.
According to police, he proceeded to sexually assault the woman twice. He took cash and jewelry out of her apartment and then walked out with her at knifepoint. They walked to the El stop on Main Street and boarded a Purple Line train, transferred at Howard, and got off at the Wilson stop on the Red Line in Chicago, Bellino said.
The man allegedly forced the woman to withdraw her money from three different ATMs in the area, after which they went to a sporting-goods store where he bought shoes and clothing with her cash.
After they boarded the El again, the man released the victim. The woman called police, while McNeal started calling some people he knew with her cell phone, Bellino said.
Police tracked down the people who called or were called with the victim’s phone and showed them a picture of the suspect taken from a security camera in the sporting-goods store.
In addition to the use of the cell phone, a few more clues pointed to McNeal as the suspect, Bellino said.
“When arrested, (McNeal) had a walkman that was the victim’s and was wearing the same shirt as the day of the incident and a pair of shoes he bought at the sports-apparel store,” Bellino said.
McNeal was imprisoned in the Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, Ill., for the 1999 burglary, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was released Aug. 24 and his parole is scheduled to expire in December 2006.
Reach Greg Hafkin at [email protected].
