EVERETT, Wash. --
A 30-year-old Everett man was arrested and booked into the Snohomish County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of a rape committed more than 12 years ago when he was 17 years old, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said.
Police said the rape happened the afternoon of June 24, 1998, at Discovery Elementary School in south Everett. A teacher was preparing for summer school in her portable classroom building when a young man surprised her, raped her, threatened her with a gun and then fled, deputies said.
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives investigated the assault at the time and were not able to identify the culprit but collected DNA evidence, investigators said. At the time, the sample was tested using the latest DNA forensic science but did not yield anyone in connection to the crime.
In June of last year, Detective Jim Scharf with the Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit contacted a forensic scientist at the Washington State Patrol about the case and asked if there was still enough DNA available to retest using more advanced DNA testing processes, Snohomish County authorities said. The State Patrol said there was plenty of DNA remaining and conducted additional testing.
Police said that in January, Scharf learned there was a match on the recently tested DNA and that the man had lived less than a mile from the school at the time of the rape. The man has had incidents with law enforcement since then that required him to submit DNA samples, deputies said.
Investigators said the man in the case has a criminal history that includes a conviction in 2000 for a string of residential burglaries in Snohomish County and a federal conviction for pharmacy burglaries along the West Coast. He was on parole for the federal conviction at the time of his arrest on Wednesday.
The man was booked for investigation of first-degree rape and first-degree burglary.
Copyright 2011 by KIROTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
