Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, February 5, 2013, movie-goers leaving a theater in Cypress, Texas, a Houston bedroom community in northwest Harris County, saw a teenage girl walking aimlessly about the Cinemark Cypress parking lot. The nude, unnamed 16-year-old was drenched in blood from a severe head wound. The theater security guard called 911 while several of the theater patrons attended to the dazed girl. Paramedics transported the Cypress Woods High School student by helicopter to a Houston hospital where she remained in critical but stable condition.
According to the victim, she had left her home around eleven that night after an argument with a family member. While walking along Spring Cypress Road not far from the high school, a man knocked her to the ground with a hatchet. He dragged her into the woods where he raped her while she played dead. She described the man who ambushed her as a white male in his early twenties who was thin, muscular and between five-foot-seven and five-foot-ten inches tall. He wore dark-colored clothing. After the assault, the victim walked a half mile to the theater parking lot.
K-9 officers with the Harris County Sheriff's Office searched the rape site for the suspect. If the deputies came across physical evidence pertaining to the rape or the attacker, they did not reveal this information to the media.
A woman told the police she had seen a suspicious man that night at a grocery store. The witnesses said that this man's knuckles were bloody. "Not overly bloody," she said, "but you could tell he'd been in a scuffle." Presumably, detectives followed up on this lead.
A second witness reported seeing a sweaty man in the area that night. Described as thin and wearing a gray shirt, he walked with his head down. The witness, before she learned of the rape, assumed this man had come out of a nearby 24-hour fitness center.
A third witnesses claimed to have seen a man in bloody clothes enter a gas station restroom. According to this witness, when the man came out of the restroom he was wearing a clean set of clothing. It is not known if detectives were able to identify this man.
On February 10, 2013, the Harris County Sheriff's Office released a composite sketch of the rapist. This was not good news because it indicated that the police, five days into the investigation, did not have a suspect.
Two and a half years since the movie-goers saw the bloody teen walking about in the parking lot, there has been no arrest in the case, or a sign that detectives even had a suspect. Moreover, there was nothing in the papers or on television about the status of the investigation. This apparent lack of police progress and media silence created frustration and fear in the community. Could there be a serial rapist on the loose?
The lack of information in the Cypress rape case has also fueled speculation about a possible cover-up, and rumors that the rapist was a football player who was enrolled at Cypress Woods or Cypress Ranch High School.
Residents of the Cypress community, in the absence of an arrest, wanted to know if investigators had recovered the hatchet. Did they find the girl's bloody clothing in the woods where she said she had been raped? Did the rapist leave behind trace evidence to confirm sexual intercourse, evidence that would link him to the assault through DNA? Did the police employ a rape kit? Was there any chance the victim knew the person who assaulted her? And finally, with whom had she had the argument that night, and what was that all about?
In February 2018, five years after the brutal crime, the Harris County District Attorney's office charged 24-year-old Levi Austin Goss with the kidnapping and rape of the 16-year-old victim. The member of the U. S. Army was under investigation for a sexual assault committed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Harris County authorities arrested Goss after his DNA matched DNA recovered from the Cypress crime site. At the time of the 16-year-old's rape, Goss had lived near the scene of the crime.
The Austin Goss case, as of this writing, has not come to trial or a plea agreement. Moreover, there is nothing on the Internet to explain the delay.
According to the victim, she had left her home around eleven that night after an argument with a family member. While walking along Spring Cypress Road not far from the high school, a man knocked her to the ground with a hatchet. He dragged her into the woods where he raped her while she played dead. She described the man who ambushed her as a white male in his early twenties who was thin, muscular and between five-foot-seven and five-foot-ten inches tall. He wore dark-colored clothing. After the assault, the victim walked a half mile to the theater parking lot.
K-9 officers with the Harris County Sheriff's Office searched the rape site for the suspect. If the deputies came across physical evidence pertaining to the rape or the attacker, they did not reveal this information to the media.
A woman told the police she had seen a suspicious man that night at a grocery store. The witnesses said that this man's knuckles were bloody. "Not overly bloody," she said, "but you could tell he'd been in a scuffle." Presumably, detectives followed up on this lead.
A second witness reported seeing a sweaty man in the area that night. Described as thin and wearing a gray shirt, he walked with his head down. The witness, before she learned of the rape, assumed this man had come out of a nearby 24-hour fitness center.
A third witnesses claimed to have seen a man in bloody clothes enter a gas station restroom. According to this witness, when the man came out of the restroom he was wearing a clean set of clothing. It is not known if detectives were able to identify this man.
On February 10, 2013, the Harris County Sheriff's Office released a composite sketch of the rapist. This was not good news because it indicated that the police, five days into the investigation, did not have a suspect.
Two and a half years since the movie-goers saw the bloody teen walking about in the parking lot, there has been no arrest in the case, or a sign that detectives even had a suspect. Moreover, there was nothing in the papers or on television about the status of the investigation. This apparent lack of police progress and media silence created frustration and fear in the community. Could there be a serial rapist on the loose?
The lack of information in the Cypress rape case has also fueled speculation about a possible cover-up, and rumors that the rapist was a football player who was enrolled at Cypress Woods or Cypress Ranch High School.
Residents of the Cypress community, in the absence of an arrest, wanted to know if investigators had recovered the hatchet. Did they find the girl's bloody clothing in the woods where she said she had been raped? Did the rapist leave behind trace evidence to confirm sexual intercourse, evidence that would link him to the assault through DNA? Did the police employ a rape kit? Was there any chance the victim knew the person who assaulted her? And finally, with whom had she had the argument that night, and what was that all about?
In February 2018, five years after the brutal crime, the Harris County District Attorney's office charged 24-year-old Levi Austin Goss with the kidnapping and rape of the 16-year-old victim. The member of the U. S. Army was under investigation for a sexual assault committed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Harris County authorities arrested Goss after his DNA matched DNA recovered from the Cypress crime site. At the time of the 16-year-old's rape, Goss had lived near the scene of the crime.
The Austin Goss case, as of this writing, has not come to trial or a plea agreement. Moreover, there is nothing on the Internet to explain the delay.
Thank you for posting this story
ReplyDeleteHave you heard anything more on this case.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard how the girl that was raped is doing?
ReplyDeleteIt is not just Journalism in Houston: It is Journalism in America nowadays. Journalism is no longer truth. It is all reported with bias and is relative to the beliefs of the Journalist. Look at the Political lies being reported and the truth being swept under the rug.
ReplyDeleteI have suspected this girl knew her attacker and that is why the investigation is no longer in the works.
I drive by the crime scene almost daily, always wondering how that poor girl is doing. To the best of my knowledge, she has never returned to school. At least Cy-Woods.
ReplyDeleteIt's June of 2015 now and we still have no information on this case. I also drive by the site of the crime almost daily and think about this every time I do, as well as when I drive by the movie theater. Something isn't right, it does seem that they (the authorities) decided to sweep it under the rug.
ReplyDeleteWhat is going on with this case? PLease advise. Thank you.I went by there just today!!!
ReplyDeleteJim Fisher, change the name from true crime to true nonsense, because if you believe football is so big in the area, a rape would be covered up to protect a player in nonsense. Are you even aware of how DNA works and what CODIS is? Secondly, trace evidence, who’d she fight with that night etc. is not public information and nor does it need to be??? Get real dude!
ReplyDeleteWell Dude, as a former FBI agent who worked homicide cases and has written a university press book on forensic science, I think I know a little about DNA.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, sports in some areas is the end all be all. If the victim knew her rapist, there could have been an issue of this person had a position in the community who had a lot of pull and wanted it hushed up. Some years back a mother committed murder just to give her daughter an advantage in cheerleaders competition.
ReplyDeleteThis is not unusual. Money, fame, political pull,lots of reasons to hush things up.My concern would be whether this young girl received proper recovery therapy and health services to help her overcome this ordeal. The victim should be the concern here.
I was acquainted with the victim. The assault was of opportunity and vicious.
ReplyDeleteThere is a young lady on YouTube claiming that she was the one who was raped. She is a latina woman going by the name of "Lily rhythm".
DeleteNot really sure if it is her and she didn't give any update on what happened after and she was very vague. I can't find any sentencing update or any news coverage. This happened a long time ago. I knew him from Fort Bragg and it would be nice to know if justice was freaking served for the heinous crimes he committed.
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