DNA leads to charges in 2010 Aurora garden plot attack
DNA evidence has led to charges against an Aurora man for an August 2010 sex attack at the Oakhurst Forest Preserve community garden plots on the Aurora's east side.
Tyrone M. Young, 30, who already faces charges for an attack in the women's bathroom of a home improvement store last summer, recently was indicted on 14 charges stemming from the garden plot attack, according to court records.
Young, of the 800 block of Sard Avenue, is charged with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, three counts of criminal sexual assault, two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, four counts of aggravated battery and one count of unlawful restraint, the court records said.
“We had DNA evidence that was slowly working its way through the state crime lab that came back as positive for Mr. Young,” said Kane County Forest Preserve Police Chief Michael Gilloffo.
He also credited Forest Preserve Police Officer Patti Bowker for working with Aurora police on the case.
Authorities said a then-29-year-old woman told police she was gardening at about 1:30 p.m. Aug 28, 2010, when a man walked into the garden and suddenly attacked her and sexually assaulted her.
According to court documents, the woman was choked to the point of losing consciousness.
Several people pulled into the parking lot, called police and the attacker fled in a dark green, four-door Pontiac Grand Prix.
The woman was taken to Copley Hospital in Aurora, where she was treated for nonlife threatening injuries.
Young faces up to 30 years in prison on the garden plot charges if convicted and he is due in court on June 20.
He also faces charges of attempted criminal sexual assault, aggravated battery and public indecency from a July 20, 2011, attack at a home improvement store on Aurora's far west side.
Police were called 7:53 a.m. that day by a 35-year-old woman who said she was attacked while in the women's washroom.
The woman told investigators she was washing her hands when a man wearing only boxer shorts who had likely had been hiding in a stall grabbed her by the head and slammed her to the floor. The woman screamed and another woman came out of a different stall and the man got dressed and left the washroom.
Another man followed the suspect out of the store and wrote down the license plate of a dark green Pontiac, authorities said.
Police then went to Young's home and arrested him. The victim was bruised but declined treatment, authorities said.
Young faces up to 15 years in prison on these charges and is due in court on Thursday.
He has been held in the Kane County jail since his July arrest and his total bail is $1.25 million.