Few details available on sexual assault

Chapel Hill police have uncovered few details about the reported rape of a female UNC student that occurred Saturday morning, police said Monday.

The UNC student was raped at an off-campus location at around 3:30 a.m. by an unknown male perpetrator, according to Chapel Hill police.

No arrests had been made in the case as of Monday afternoon, and police are still working to determine where the assault occurred.

The victim went to UNC Hospitals for examination, though she was not admitted, said Lt. Kevin Gunter, spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department.

He said they have little information about the incident.

“We are working with (the victim) to find out where exactly this happened,” Gunter said.

“We don’t have an address, but we’re looking into it as I speak.”

In Chapel Hill, sexual assaults have historically clustered around Franklin Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, according to a Daily Tar Heel analysis of Chapel Hill police records conducted in April.

Gunter said police believe the suspect is a white, college-aged male.

He said police do not know whether the victim and suspect knew each other prior to the incident.

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, roughly 73 percent of sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows.

Randy Young, spokesman for the UNC Department of Public Safety, said this is the third reported sexual assault of a UNC student this year.

“The last time was in May, when two women were battered by virtue of unwanted touching,” Young said.

“It’s obviously of deep concern to us when any UNC student is assaulted.”

An Alert Carolina message was sent out to UNC students Saturday night informing them of the assault.

Young said he will investigate all updates he receives and post on Alert Carolina as necessary.

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.