“I said from the start the case would be made on the merits of the physical evidence,” Isbell said. “And that’s exactly what has happened.”

Barbosa, or Sanchez, was identified two months after the alleged rape of the elderly woman, following DNA comparison of evidence found at the crime scene and at a nearby residence. Isbell completed a DNA profile of the suspect in April with assistance from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

According to Isbell, Barbosa fled to Mexico after the rape, abandoning his vehicle at a bus station in Houston where he purchased a ticket to Monterrey. Local and international warrants for his arrest were issued, charging Barbosa with especially aggravated burglary and aggravated rape.

Evading capture for almost two years, Barbosa was taken into custody without incident at a family member’s home in San Luis.

Isbell called the apprehension “truly a collaborative effort” between the Tellico Plains Police Department, the District Attorney’s office, the TBI, the FBI’s Violent Crimes Apprehension Program, Monroe County EMS, the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Unit, and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

The victim, now 94 years old, is “doing great,” Isbell said, having relocated to Ohio where she is living with her grandson

“Her health, both physically and mentally, is excellent,” he said. Isbell said he believed the rape incident was an attempted homicide as well, “not a crime that we could allow to go unsolved.”

“It was a sick, sick crime,” he said. “The victim was attacked in her sleep in the dark. It was brutal.”

Isbell then reiterated the logic of his investigation, saying he declined to deploy tracking dogs for fear of contaminating evidence at the scene.

“So what if we had tracked Barbosa down that night? We had no evidence at that point, the victim did not see her attacker, and there was no way to prove the case except by the physical evidence we carefully collected and processed, ultimately identifying the suspect”.