A Boone County jury listened to emotional testimony Tuesday from a former Columbia resident who was abducted, raped and had her throat slashed in a case that went cold for almost four decades.
The victim in the 1984 case took the witness stand on Tuesday and testified as a prosecution witness. 939 the Eagle News was at the Boone County Courthouse for her testimony. Jury selection took all morning in the case involving 61-year-old James Frederick Wilson, a former Columbia man who’s charged in Boone County with forcible rape and first degree assault for the 1984 abduction, rape and throat-slashing of a woman who was abducted while walking to work.
Wilson, who grew up in Columbia and attended Rock Bridge high school, has been jailed without bond since being captured in North Carolina in 2022. He also has ties to Milwaukee. He wore a blue dress shirt and dark khaki pants in court. His beard has been shaved and his hair is much shorter than it was when he was arrested.
The victim in this case, who now lives in another state, took the witness stand on Tuesday. She tells the jury that she had just turned 17 and was a Hickman student and a Columbia police cadet who was walking to her job at Naugles on a stormy early-evening in 1984. She testifies she was walking near Wilkes and Providence when a heavyset man began walking toward her. She testifies that she held her breath as she walked by him because something didn’t feel right. She testifies after she walked by him, the abductor grabbed her, put a knife in her side and forced her into his two-door green vehicle. She provided graphic testimony about being driven to northeast Columbia’s Wellington drive, and cried as she told the jury she thought she would die in the vehicle. She testifies she asked her abductor in the car why he was doing this and that he responded by saying no one would find out. She testified that she said the Lord’s Prayer several times in her head as she was driven to desolate Wellington drive.
The woman testifies that she was raped in the back seat and then forced out of the vehicle and into a creek area, where she testifies her abductor slashed her throat. The victim says she “played dead” and was cut at least one or two more times before he attacker walked up a hill and back to his green vehicle. She spent ten days at University Hospital and suffered major damage to her trachea and vocal cords. The jury saw several graphic photos of her neck wounds in court on Tuesday.
Boone County assistant prosecutor Susan Boresi indicated in court that this was a random abduction and incident, saying the victim did not know her attacker. The trial continues this (Wednesday) morning.
