Top 10 Most Wanted fugitive nabbed, charged in ongoing rape investigation

A man added Friday to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s ‘Top 10 Most Wanted’ list has turned himself in to authorities to face charges in connection to a rape case from five years ago.

On November 18, 2011, at the request of former 22nd District Attorney General Mike Bottoms, TBI Agents joined the Maury County Sheriff’s Department in its investigation of a rape allegation reported on November 10, 2011. During the course of the investigation, forensic scientists developed a DNA profile for an unknown male, identified as the offender in the case.

On December 6, 2012, a TBI Agent presented the case to the Maury County Grand Jury and secured a “John Doe” indictment, charging the individual identified by the DNA profile with one count of Aggravated Rape, one count of Aggravated Robbery, and four counts of Aggravated Kidnapping.

The profile of the unknown male was entered into the DNA database and searched against all samples, but did not immediately provide any positive matches. The profile, however, remained active in the database and was consistently searched against new profiles entered into the database from samples obtained from persons arrested for certain crimes committed in Tennessee.

On March 4, 2016, in an unrelated incident, the Columbia Police Department arrested Brandon Wayne Isabell (DOB 5-17-81) and charged him with Attempted Robbery, Attempted Rape, and Attempted Kidnapping. After his arrest, Isabell’s DNA standard was collected, per state law, and uploaded into the DNA database. The standard subsequently matched the previously-entered profile in the 2011 rape case, and a search warrant for a DNA standard, executed by the Maury County Sheriff’s Department, independently confirmed Isabell’s connection to the original rape investigation.

On Friday, the TBI placed Isabell on its ‘Top 10 Most Wanted’ list, and on Sunday, he surrendered to authorities at the Maury County Jail, where he remains incarcerated at the time of this release.