A woman was raped in her Lakewood home 3 years ago. A suspect now is charged

LAKEWOOD, Wash. — A man suspected of raping a stranger in her Lakewood home three years ago was charged after a recent DNA database search linked him to the crime, charging papers allege.

Derante Rashawn Cook, 26, was booked into the Pierce County Jail on Wednesday.

He pleaded not guilty at arraignment Thursday to first-degree rape and first-degree burglary in Pierce County Superior Court. Judge Bryan Chushcoff ordered him held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Charging papers gave this account of what happened:

Officers responded to the woman’s apartment early Feb. 17, 2018 after she reported the attack.

The woman said she and her children, ages 2 and 7, had been asleep and that her husband had been out with friends.

The suspect pulled her to the floor and put a blanket and a pillow over her face.

He allegedly dragged her around the apartment, sexually assaulted her, then put her in a closet and left.

“After he left, the victim found the patio door was unlocked and believed that is how he entered,” the declaration for determination of probable cause said.

There wasn’t a match when investigators initially ran DNA from the crime through CODIS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Combined DNA Index System.

Then a more recent search identified Cook as a match.

His DNA was added to CODIS following an arrest in Texas in 2020, according to police, and investigators learned he used to live in Lakewood.

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