Suspect arrested in 2013 kidnap, rape of girl found naked, bleeding outside movie theater
CYPRESS, Texas -- A suspect is behind bars for a crime that shocked the community five years ago.
A 16-year-old girl was found naked and bleeding in a movie theater parking lot in Feb. 2013. The victim told investigators she'd been sexually assaulted and beaten."
"This individual was brutally assaulted that night," Lt. JD Philpot said. "Hit in the head numerous times and she's still suffering from brain trauma."
Levi Goss, 24, is charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of a child. Records show Goss lived near the crime scene in 2013.
"One can assume because he did have a close family relative living nearby, that he was familiar with that area," Lt. Philpot said.
At the time of the crime, the girl told police she was walking along the road in front of Cypress Woods High School in the 16600 block of Spring Cypress Road at around 11 p.m. when someone grabbed her from behind.
Sheriff's deputies say people walking out of the Cinemark Cypress movie theater saw the girl walking around naked in the parking lot. They told officers she had a head wound and was bleeding badly.
The girl, who was rushed to the hospital by helicopter, told officers she was sexually assaulted in a wooded area in front of the school, then hit on the head with an a blunt object that she described as a hatchet. The victim reportedly eventually played dead in an effort to get her attacker to leave her alone.
Goss is in custody in Cumberland County, North Carolina, currently being held on $1 million bond and awaiting transfer to Harris County.
"Considering how horrible it was, I'm glad they kept after it and pursued them and somebody was arrested," Cypress resident Michael Boyer said.
A member of the U.S. Army, Goss was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where he is being investigated by military authorities in connection with another sexual assault case.
Goss is a member of the 82nd Airborne. The infantry division sent Eyewitness News a statement regarding his arrest.
"Private First Class Levi Goss, an All American Paratrooper, is in civilian confinement. He is under investigation by civilian law enforcement for an allegation that may predate his military service. We are cooperating with civilian law enforcement in this matter."
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory notified the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science in January that Goss' DNA matches evidence collected from the victim of the 2013 attack.
If he's convicted of the first-degree felonies he's currently charged with, Goss could face up to life in prison.
Foster mom relieved after arrest
A foster mom says she is relieved after learning about the arrest of an alleged rapist.
It was February 2013, a cool night around 11 p.m.
"She had left, and I didn't know she had left," says the woman, who didn't want us to reveal her identity.
The woman says she remembers the night her 16-year-old foster daughter we'll call Anna disappeared.
"I look for her and still did not find her," she said. "We drove up and down Spring Cypress."
RELATED: Suspect arrested in 2013 brutal kidnapping and rape of 16-year-old girl
Then, a phone call. A couple had found Anna, but she wasn't okay.
"She had been attacked, and I drove down there as fast as I could," she said.
The crime scene was in a wooded area along Spring Cypress Road. The woman said when she got to her daughter, she couldn't even recognize her.
"I didn't think I was going to see what I saw. She was bloody from head to toe, and she had no clothes on," she said.
Anna was shaking and brutally beaten, barely conscious, but had a good recollection of what happened to her.
"She said some guy came out with the handle of a hatchet and just started beating on her," her foster mother said.
Anna played dead. The man ran away thinking she was dead.
"When we got to the hospital, she was cut up, she had gashes in her head and they had to do stitches for the head," she said.
Five years later, Anna's foster mom said she thought the violent attack was still under investigation.
Sheriff's investigators said 24-year-old Levi Goss is the man who kidnapped, attacked and raped the then 16-year-old girl.
Records show Goss lived near the crime scene and later joined the Army, but was recently investigated for a separate sexual assault.
Detectives got a DNA hit, linking Goss back to Anna's case.
He's stationed at Fort Bragg, but will be brought back to Houston in the next 10 days to face the charges.
"For this person to do this to a child, he had to have been a monster," Anna's mom says. "He is evil, that is my opinion."
As for Anna, her foster mother tells me she struggled but worked hard to have a normal life. She even went on to college.
"It's a relief for me and it's a relief for her because I know she can have some closure to herself."
