Police arrested a man in Arkansas last week in connection with a sexual assault in Texas that happened nearly 10 years ago.
Detectives from the Plano, Texas, Police Department, with the cooperation of the Arkansas State Police, arrested Jeffery Lemor Wheat, 48, on Jan. 11, according to a department news release.
Wheat initially was jailed in Van Buren before authorities transferred him to Texas, according to David Tilley, public information officer for the Plano Police Department. Wheat is being held in the Collin County, Texas, Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.
Bill Sadler, public information officer for the Arkansas State Police, said Tuesday he couldn't find any information on Wheat's arrest and it's unclear why Wheat was in Arkansas. Sadler said a probable cause affidavit shows Wheat lives in High Point, N.C.
A Plano woman reported to police April 2, 2011, a man broke into her home early that morning and sexually assaulted her while she was in bed, according to the affidavit.
The woman received a call from the man on her cell phone four days later apologizing for what he had done. Police determined the phone call was made from a gas station in Mesquite, Texas, and obtained video from the store, according to the affidavit.
Two similar assaults were reported in the nearby cities of Coppell and Corinth within the following seven months, with DNA samples indicating the same suspect was responsible in all three cases. The DNA also matched a sample taken from a sexual assault case in Arlington, Texas, in 2003, according to the affidavit.
Each of the women in the 2011 sexual assault cases were alumnae of Delta Sigma Theta, a historically Black sorority, Tilley said. Their cases gained national attention when they were featured on a 2011 episode of America's Most Wanted.
Plano police developed Wheat as a suspect in the cases through genealogical research, online record searches, social media and interviews, according to the affidavit. Police also obtained a DNA sample from Wheat's child on Dec. 8 in order to compare it to the DNA samples collected at the crime scenes, the affidavit stated.
Plano police are cooperating with the Coppell and Corinth police departments sharing what they know about Wheat, but so far, the Plano incident is the only one for which Wheat's been detained, Tilley said.