West Point man accused of serial rape after police charge him in second 2003 cold case

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) – West Point Police have charged a suspect with a second rape connected with another cold case from 2003.

During a press conference Wednesday at 12 p.m., Detective Ramirez Ivy and Assistant District Attorney Trina Davidson Brooks announced that 55-year-old Frederick Gandy is charged with another count of rape.

“We didn’t make this discovery until we were on the last investigation and we found out there was another possible victim that night,” Detective Ivy says.

In July, West Point Police announced that Gandy was charged with the rape and attempted murder of Neshedra Strong Clay in January of 2003. Through that investigation, Detective Ivy says they discovered there was another sexual assault four to five hours before that.

Investigators say the suspect got into the victim’s car and made her drive to TVA Road, where the assault took place.

“I assigned this case to Detective Ross, who made new discoveries that there was more evidence around that could be submitted to the lab,” Detective Ivy says.

Detective Raven Ross found the evidence in spite of a 19-year time gap during which both the victim and original investigators left West Point.

“We have a system that we use to log evidence in, so I went into that system and found the evidence that was taken from the victim that night and I submitted it to the private crime lab,” Detective Ross says.

That evidence led to Gandy, who is now accused of serial rape. Detective Ivy says they will be looking through archived crime reports for other possible connections.

“We’re going to look through the old system to see if there’s anything,” he says. “Of course, when we were investigating the first case, we saw similarities in this case as well based on things that we discovered.”

Both detectives say they hope the victim can find some closure after all these years.

“Not just as an investigator but as a woman,” Detective Ross says. “I’ve never experienced anything like that but I can only imagine the trauma, the hurt, the nightmares that it has caused the victim.”

“They deserve the answers. They also deserve, mostly, the justice,” Detective Ivy.

Gandy was being held on a $950,000 bond on charges of rape, attempted murder, burglary, and robbery. He will now have another bond hearing for the new charges.