The attack happened at an older home that is divided up into a couple of apartments on Park Avenue -- just two blocks from the NC State campus.
According to arrest warrants, 25-year-old Mitchell Dean Morrison is accused of breaking into a 22-year-old woman's apartment.
The woman says she arrived home from work around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday and woke up at 4 a.m. to find a man holding a steak knife to her throat.
The woman was allegedly raped repeatedly and sexually assaulted for five hours.
Warrants allege the victim was cut with a steak knife that was held to her neck, punched in the face with a closed fist, slapped in the face with the back of a hand and bitten on her neck.
"As a woman that's probably the scariest thing you can imagine," neighbor Anne Fletcher said. "You just, you feel like you should be safe in your own bed."
The attacker was nabbed by a citizen as he fled the apartment around 9 a.m. and was held down until police arrived.
Morrison is charged with three counts each of first-degree rape, sex offense and assault on a female, first-degree burglary, assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment.
Morrison allegedly told the victim that she knew him from somewhere, according to her 911 call. She told authorities he looked familiar, but couldn't immediately place him.
The woman also told police that the suspect had nipple piercings and distinctive tattoos around his groin.
When booked, Morrison used a Smithfield address, but a woman at that house told ABC11 Eyewitness News on Monday that Morrison only stayed there for a short time a while back.
ABC11 found an address for Morrison at a north Raleigh apartment complex in 2009, but no one remembered him.
Morrison appeared before a judge Monday for the first time and his bond was left at $1.1 million. He is currently being held in the Wake County Jail.
Records show he does not have a violent criminal history in North Carolina -- only a few traffic violations.
However, Raleigh Police are investigating whether Morrison committed a similar crime, but had not been caught. They are currently checking with other law enforcement agencies to see if there are unsolved crimes similar to the one that happened Sunday.
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