XPost: alt.construction, oc.general, sac.politics
XPost: alt.society.liberalism

After 23 years, and a lead from a genealogy database, a garage
door repairman will stand trial for multiple sexual assaults in
south OC.

MISSION VIJEO, CA —A jogger in Mission Viejo was attacked and
brutally raped 23 years ago, investigators say. After a hit from
a genealogy database, Orange County Sheriff's Department
officers honed in on her alleged serial rapist. Now, a garage
door repairman will stand trial in multiple violent sexual
offenses, the OCDA's office says.

The 54-year-old Highland resident, Kevin Konther, a twin,
allegedly molested the 9-year-old girl and the woman in south
Orange County in the 1990s, and also molested another child,
this time a 12-year-old girl, between 2002 and 2003.

In 2018, using the same technique that led to the arrest of the
alleged Golden State Killer, Orange County investigators
submitted the DNA to an ancestry website and got a match to
identical twins.
By January 2019, Konther was arrested at his San Bernardino
County home after investigators linked him to the 1990s attacks,
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said at that time.

Two other felony counts against Konther, both aggravated sexual
assault of a child and a count of aggravated sexual assault of a
child - oral copulation with force or fear, were dropped,
according to Orange County Superior Court.

Konther still faces two counts each of rape, forcible oral
copulation of a victim and single counts each of forcible lewd
act on a child and lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, all
felonies. He is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 6 in the Central
Justice Center in Santa Ana.

Investigators say Konther grabbed a then- 9-year-old girl
walking home from a convenience store in Lake Forest at 6:40
p.m. on Oct. 21, 1995.

The attacker dragged her into a wooded area in Serrano Creek
Park, raped her, and then let go.

She ran home, told her parents, and a search ensued that bore no
results.

"These crimes were very impactful to Lake Forest," Barnes said
of the attack on the girl. "It traumatized the community for
years."
Barnes also noted how the girl sat down with investigators and
provided a description that led to a composite sketch. He said
she was "incredibly brave" to do so.

Investigators also say Konther both kidnapped then raped a 31-
year-old woman at 11:30 a.m. on June 2, 1998.
She was jogging on a Mission Viejo trail near El Toro Road and
Marguerite Parkway when she was dragged into some bushes and
raped.

Investigators matched the DNA collected from the woman's rape
and linked it to the suspect in the 9-year-old girl's attack,
according to Barnes.

Investigators tied Konther to the ongoing molestation of another
12-year-old girl three different times between January 2002 and
December 2003, Deputy District Attorney Michael Carroll said in
January.

https://patch.com/california/missionviejo/mission-viejo-cold- case-sexual-assault-suspect-will-stand-trial

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