More than 23 years after a leasing agent was stabbed repeatedly in the bathroom of a Marietta apartment complex, a convicted felon has been charged in the attack, Cobb’s top prosecutor said Wednesday.
Warrants were taken out last week charging Terrance L. Wright with aggravated assault and attempted rape in the Sept. 3, 1992, attack on a 43-year-old Canterbury Lane Apartments leasing agent, Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds said. Wright, who is 46 years old and currently serving a life sentence for murder in North Carolina, was also convicted of rape and murder in South Carolina. He will be sent to that state if he is paroled in North Carolina.
Investigators said Wright was in Marietta around the time of the Sept. 3, 1992, incident.
That morning, the victim was alone in the leasing office when a man entered, asked about leasing an apartment and pulled out a knife, Reynolds said.
“The man turned the office’s “open” sign to “closed,” and forced the woman into the office’s bathroom,” he said. “As he was removing her clothing, the attacker became spooked by a noise and stabbed the woman three times in her left upper chest area, and then fled.”
The woman, who was able to call 911 for help, survived her injuries.
Fast forward to January 2016.
Using procedures not available in 1992, crime-scene technicians tested forensic evidence in the case and received a match to Wright, who denied any involvement in the attack when authorities traveled to North Carolina to interview him last week. The case is now being prepared for presentation to the Grand Jury, Reynolds said.
“It is wonderful to be able to get answers in a case like this even all these years later,” he said.
Investigators notified the victim her case had not been forgotten.
“Justice matters,” Reynolds said, “For this victim. For everyone.”
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