66-year-old man charged in sexual assault cold case, Macon deputies say
This story discusses subjects that may be disturbing to some readers. Resources are available, including the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673, and Georgia Crisis & Access Line at 800-715-4225
A 66-year-old man was arrested Monday in connection with a 2017 rape cold case, three months after Macon investigators reopened the investigation, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
A sexual assault was reported on Sept. 16, 2017, in Macon, the release said. Deputies interviewed the survivor at the scene that day.
It wasn’t the suspect’s first time being connected to a rape case, deputies said in a news release.
As a result, “a match in DNA evidence linked to a rape conviction in 1989” helped investigators identify Robert Lee Carter of Macon as a suspect in 2017 case, the sheriff’s office said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab tested the samples.
The sheriff’s office obtained an arrest warrant for Carter. The U.S. Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested him before 3 p.m. Monday, deputies said. He was taken to the sheriff’s office’s Investigations Headquarters, then booked in the Bibb County Jail.
Carter is charged with rape and was denied bond on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said.
Similar local cold cases
This is one of dozens of unsolved cases under investigation by the sheriff’s office’s Cold Case Unit, which was established July 1, according to Investigator Kristina Tench.
“Sexual assaults tend to yield a lot of evidence,” Tench said during an Aug. 29 interview with The Telegraph.
The Cold Case Unit collaborates with the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force led by the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, a state grant-funded program that has helped solve cases involving repeat offenders, according to Jay Eisner, coordinator of the task force.
“We work cases now that are sometimes decades old, and we end up finding that they are serial offenders who have had a lifetime of causing harm,” Eisner said.
This story was originally published October 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM.
