Kansas rape victim identifies suspect after seeing him in Snapchat news feed

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) -- A Wichita woman was scrolling through Snapchat news stories on Jan. 19 when she noticed a mug shot of someone who looked familiar. She told police it was the man who raped her in 2019 when she was 15.

The story in the Snapchat feed was about Daniel Alberto Alonso-Hernandez, 32, a paraeducator at Wichita’s South High School who had been arrested on suspicion of unlawful relations with a student.

Prosecutors say the woman's recognition of the man has led to a new case being filed against Alonso-Hernandez.

May 2019 rape report

According to the police investigation of the 2019 rape, a 15-year-old girl met a boy on Snapchat in April. She said that he claimed to be a senior at Northwest High School, and his name was Taylor Daniel. She told police that she snuck out of the house one night, drove around with him, and they "had sex."

The probable cause affidavit says the girl blocked Taylor's Snapchat account.

But, on May 25, 2019, she got a Snapchat message from a person going by the name of Dan, Danny, or Daniel. She told police he sent her a photo, and she recognized him as the person she had previously known as Taylor. He told her again that he was a student at Northwest High.

The girl said they agreed to meet and that he picked her up around 2 a.m., May 26, 2019, from the friend's house. They drove around, then parked. According to the affidavit, the girl said the boy tried to make advances, and she told him no. It goes on to say that she felt scared and that he pushed her down on the seat and would not let her get up. That is when she said he raped her.

The girl said that the boy got a call from his mother around 5:30 a.m., telling him he needed to go to church. So he took the girl home and left.

The girl reported the rape, and a rape kit was collected on May 26, 2019. At that time, the male DNA did not match anyone in the criminal system, and the rape remained unsolved.

Break in the case

The victim from 2019 is now an 18-year-old woman. After recognizing the person in the mug shot, one of her relatives called the detective who handled the original case. The detective called the victim to get her report.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the rape victim told the detective that Alonso-Hernandez was the person who raped her. Police applied for a search warrant for Alonso-Hernandez's DNA. The court document says that the DNA collected during the 2019 rape investigation matched Alonso-Hernandez's DNA.

The other case

The news story that the rape victim saw in January of this year was about Alonso-Hernandez's arrest. Prosecutors charged him with one count of unlawful sexual relations between a teacher and a student over the age of 16.

The probable cause affidavit related to that charge includes information from the student. She told police that she met Alonso-Hernandez on Snapchat in April 2020 when she was 17 and a student at South High. She said that, at first, she thought he was a 22-year-old college student.

She told police they had a physical relationship and that he recorded some of it on his cell phone. She said she asked him to delete the videos, but he did not.

After the student graduated, she told police that she tried to break up with Alonso-Hernandez, but he would use the videos as threats to keep her with him or to get her to break up with a boyfriend. She eventually called the police, which led to the arrest.

A judge set the bond at $50,000.

New case filed

After the 2019 rape victim came forward and police investigated, the district attorney's office filed a new case against Alonso-Hernandez:

• Aggravated indecent liberties with a child, in connection to the April 2019 incident
• Rape, in connection to the May 2019 incident

A judge set the bond in the new case at $500,000. Alonso-Hernandez remains in the Sedgwick County jail. His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 14.

After the first case was filed in January, a USD 259 district spokesperson said Alonso-Hernandez was on leave pending the outcome of the investigation. We have not heard an update since then.