A North Carolina man will stand trial for a 2012 sexual assault cold case in Kalamazoo County, officials announced. 

Dustin Thomas, 35, of Cameron, North Carolina, is facing one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Thomas, who was 22 years old at the time of the assault, is accused of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old female Western Michigan University student at a fraternity house party in Kalamazoo in the summer of 2012. While evidence was collected in 2012, a sexual assault evidence kit was not tested until 2016 and then referred to law enforcement, which began to re-investigate the case in 2022. 

Thomas was charged in December 2024. 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says the case was prosecuted by the Kalamazoo Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), which was started in 2016 to investigate and prosecute sexual assaults connected to previously untested sexual assault evidence kits.  

"The Sexual Assault Kit Initiative continues to deliver for survivors in often-difficult cold cases, and my office is proud to support their efforts," said Nessel in a news release. "Their dedication to pursuing justice across the State, and in Kalamazoo, even when more than a decade has passed since an assault, is inspiring work and is a message to survivors that even after many years, justice and accountability remain possible in many cases."  

According to the attorney general, the Kalamazoo SAKI Team is investigating more than 200 cold-case sexual assaults that happened in Kalamazoo County between 1976 and 2015.

"The work of the Kalamazoo County SAKI Team continues to impress me with its determination to hold persons accountable for their assaultive crimes," said Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey S. Getting. "Because of their hard work, we are able to bring forward a case, despite the passage of more than a decade, on behalf of a survivor that otherwise would not have a chance for justice." 

Thomas will appear in 9th Circuit Court on March 10. 

Anyone with information that could be useful to this investigation is asked to reach out to Kalamazoo County investigator Richard Johnson at rajohn@kalcounty.com or -269-569-0515.