DNA on a coffee cup has linked a\u00a0Michigan businessman\u00a0to a pair of decades-old rapes on golf courses \u2013 including one on the Penn State University campus, authorities announced.
Kurt Alan Rillema, 51, of West Bloomfield, is charged with sexually assaulting a woman at the\u00a0Twin Lakes Golf Club\u00a0in 1999 in Oakland Charter Township and a jogger on a Penn State University golf course in 2000.
In the first incident, Rillema allegedly attacked a woman working at a food stand on the course.
“An unknown man came through the back employer door, demanded she take off her clothes and then sexually assaulted her,” according to a press release from Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
Nine months later, on July 27, Rillema allegedly struck again, asking a 19-year-old woman who was jogging near the 18th hole of the Blue Course at\u00a0Penn State University\u00a0in State College, Pennsylvania, for a Band-Aid and whether she knew the way to the clubhouse.
When she tried to leave, he allegedly held a knife to her throat and dragged her into the woods, punched her in the stomach and\u00a0raped her,\u00a0according to court papers cited by Law&Crime.
Authorities obtained DNA evidence from both rapes, which were uploaded to the\u00a0Combined DNA Index System, but there was no hit to a suspect.
In July 2021, the sheriff’s office and Penn State police collaborated on the\u00a0cold cases\u00a0and decided to giving cutting-edge DNA technology a try. They sent evidence to\u00a0Parabon Nanolabs\u00a0for genetic genealogy testing.
The discipline combines genetic analysis and genealogical research to find matches in public databases.
Once a DNA sample’s related family members are identified, public data and other clues are used to build family trees.
In the case of Rillema, DNA investigators started with distant relatives from the 1700s and eventually narrowed the potential pool of suspects to three brothers.
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