KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- Detectives turned their attention Wednesday night to finding an accused rapist who might not be guilty of any crime. Kannapolis police charged a woman's husband with arranging for a stranger to rape her.

"We need to determine for sure if this other party knows, or should've known that this wasn't going to be a consensual act," said Capt. Chuck Adams. Police said the husband went online to Craigslist to find someone to sexually assault his wife.

Investigators were using the help of the Secret Service to scour computer files in an attempt to locate the stranger.

It was mixed emotions for neighbors now relieved it wasn't a random crime. "Thoughts go out to the woman and her family, terrible thing, but very glad its not a unsuspected random attack," said Mark Russell.

Eyewitness News did a search on Craiglist, and found twelve local ads for "rape fantasy", and sixty entries for "role play."

Police emphasize that the victim in this case didn't know about her husband's plan.

Neighbors in the Farm subdivision off Shiloh Church Road in Kannapolis were shocked to learn about the arrest and charges.

Subdivision resident Herman Fons said, “How can you do that to a loved one? I’m stunned. I’m stunned.”

Kannapolis Police Chief Woody Chavis is similarly perplexed. “It’s very unusual, and I’ve been in law enforcement a long time,” he said.

Davis said the suspect went online to the Craigslist web site looking for something unusual: a sex partner willing to go too far. “He solicited him to enter his house and sexually assault his wife,” Chavis said.

The man found online has not been charged with a crime yet, and Chavis said police aren’t sure yet whether he thought the wife was in on the plan.

Sunday morning, while the couple’s 3- and 4-year-old children slept, the alleged victim awoke to see a man standing at the foot of her bed holding a knife, according to Chavis.

One of the first clues police had that the husband was a participant was that he apparently did nothing to try to stop the assault. “There is no indication he did anything whatsoever to stop it,” Chavis said.

Police confiscated the husband’s computer and gave it to the U.S. Secret Service, which found the Craigslist connection.

Eyewitness News reporter Ken Lemon asked Davis why the husband would set up such an attack. Chavis replied, “I think that was something he wanted to experience. That was his fantasy.”

While Kannapolis police have released the husband’s name, Eyewitness News is not using it to protect the privacy of the alleged victim in the case.