Jefferson Parish veteran indicted for sexual assault while in Navy

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Federal authorities have released new information about a local veteran who allegedly raped and threatened to kill a woman while he was stationed in Japan 15 years ago.

“Federal agents arrested a Louisiana man and former member of the United States Navy stationed in Japan, relating to a 2004 sexual assault,” according to a news release from United States Attorney’s Office Public Information Officer Shane M. Jones.

He says that 36-year-old Travis Lamont Murray of Jefferson Parish is charged with one count of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of sexual abuse.  

“The indictment alleges that on or about the late evening hours of May 25, 2004, and the early morning hours of May 26, 2004, in Yokosuka City, Japan, Murray did knowingly cause a victim to engage in a sexual act by the use of force and by threatening and placing the victim in fear that she would be subjected to death and serious bodily injury.”

It comes amid increased efforts to prosecute sexual assault crimes in the US Armed Forces.

The news release alleges that Murray was identified after the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office entered the veterans DNA into a database after an unrelated investigation.  NCIS then got a match to the sample taken from the victim in the 2004 rape case.

“The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service.”

Authorities have not identified the victim publicly.