NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) Her parent’s grave site is the place where Margaret Smith stopped to process the end of a long road to justice. For years, her parents supported the young mother who never gave up hope that one day police would find the suspect and put him behind bars.
In a June 2022 interview, Smith offered horrific details on the attack that occurred while her young daughter was home.
“About a month later she started to have nightmares. She pointed to the window where he entered the residence and said ‘the man- the man.’ You could tell she had seen or heard something. I never knew what, but now she is older and she doesn’t remember anything; I never knew how it impacted her,” Smith said.
Justice was served 28 years later when DNA collected on the crime scene matched the DNA in a database. In 2023, Linwood Scott was convicted and sent back to prison where he had been held on unrelated charges.
One year later another analysis of evidence collected in the 1992 rape of a woman in the Ghent section of norfolk matched Scott’s DNA. The DNA matched and so did the Modus Operandi. Investigator Brian Williams handled the case.
“It was back in September of 1992. The victim was at home and asleep when Mr. Scott came in through a kitchen window and sexually assaulted her. There was a knife, I believe, taken from her residence; she was cut on her hand pretty significantly,” Williams said.
Like the Smith case, technology caught up with a criminal.
It went unsolved Up until we got a DNA hit back through the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault initiative,” Williams said.
Scott was charged with burglary, Entering a house to rape, malicious wounding, attempted sodomy, and abduction in the Ghent case.
Retired Detective Larry Hockman returned to Norfolk Police to assist with the investigation.
“Larry worked there for a number of years. So he’s in the chain of custody for a lot of these cases. And his memory is phenomenal. So he’s always an asset in these types of cases back in the nineties. And the victim was also able to provide critical details,” Williams said.
Scott, was in custody for the Smith case when he was tried in late October for the 1992 Ghent case.
“It was set to go to trial. On the day it was set for trial. He entered a guilty plea. The prosecuting attorney’s office offered him a sentence of 30 years with 25 to be concurrent with his current sentence from the previous case and five additional being consecutive,” Williams said.
If you are the victim in an unsolved rape case, call the Special Crimes unit at 757-664-7033.
Norfolk Police have partnered with the YWCA to help victims through the painful process of bringing suspects to justice.