David Hawkins, 74. Photo courtesy of the Dallas County jail
Authorities arrested a 74-year-old man Wednesday in connection with a series of aggravated sexual assaults that occurred in East Dallas and Lake Highlands during the 1980s.
David Hawkins was arrested at 6 a.m. Wednesday at his home in Keene. He was booked into the Dallas County jail on a charge of aggravated sexual assault. His bond was set at $250,000.
More charges are expected to be filed in the coming weeks.
Hawkins is accused of sexually assaulting four women in East Dallas and Lake Highlands from 1982-1985. In each of the assaults he would break into the victim’s residence in the middle of the night, threaten her with a weapon and sexually assault her, police said.
Offenses include:
Date: Dec. 18, 1982, at midnight
Address: 6300 block of Shadybrook Lane
Victim: 23-year-old woman
**
Date: Jan. 3, 1983, at 3 a.m.
Address: 7900 block of Treehouse Lane
Victim: 35-year-old woman
**
Date: Aug. 18, 1983, at 4 a.m.
Address: 5700 block of Caruth Haven Drive
Victim: 25-year-old woman
**
Date : April 27, 1985, at 5 a.m.
Address: 7400 block of Holly Hill Drive
Victim: 25-year-old woman
In 2005, the Dallas Police Department encouraged victims of sexual assault during the 1970s and ’80s to contact the department as part of the Sexual Assault Cold Case Program. The survivor of the 1985 assault requested that her case be reopened. Advanced DNA testing from her case and related cases was conducted over the next four years. The person remained unidentified until 2020 when the unknown DNA was subjected to genealogical research and analysis.
Hawkins was previously convicted of rape. He was arrested in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1973 and was sentenced to 30 years confinement with nine years suspended. He was released on parole in 1977
