Jurors have found a 36-year-old Minneapolis man guilty of kidnapping and raping a woman in 2013 thanks to an investigation revived several years later after a backlog of untested sex assault kits were examined for incriminating evidence.
Mohamud Hillow Bulle, 36, currently in prison for attempted murder, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 12 after his conviction Wednesday on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of kidnapping in connection with the nighttime accosting of the woman in a Minneapolis park.
“Accountability for these crimes took more than a decade but it has finally been delivered,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “My thoughts are with the victim and her loved ones. I am grateful to our team for their work on this case and to all those involved with [the initiative].”
Bulle was identified as a suspect in May through continued investigation and DNA testing by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), along with the help of the County Attorney’s Office.
The criminal complaint not only spans the 12 years since the attack but also details how the investigation gained new life through the Minneapolis Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a partnership among the County Attorney’s Office, the Minneapolis Police Department, the BCA and the Sexual Violence Center, a local nonprofit focused on combating sexual violence and abuse.
According to the complaint:
On Oct. 13, 2013, police received a report of a sexual assault and spoke with the victim. She said she was in Minneapolis at an event that evening. While out with friends, she became separated from the group and was soon approached by a man she did not know and was later identified as Bulle.
Bulle followed her and offered to have her use his cellphone. She couldn’t complete the call and gave the phone back to him. Bulle then pushed her into a ditch in a park. He pinned her down, squeezed her neck and sexually assaulted her before walking away.
