Updated at 5:03 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Detectives today arrested a 24-year-old Winlock man for a 2007 sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in a Mossyrock-area campground.
Reginald L. Juntunen was identified through DNA, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
He was in Lewis County Superior Court today on an unrelated matter when he was taken into custody.
The sheriff’s office says the girl was riding her bicycle in the campground when she was approached by a man who said he wanted her to come look at something.
When she came close, he told he had a knife and forced her into a public restroom and assaulted her, according to a news release from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He left on foot, the sheriff’s office says.
The report was taken when deputies were called on Sept. 22, 2007 to the campground on the 200 block of Ajlune Road.
Evidence from the scene was sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab and earlier this month the sheriff’s office received notification they identified a suspect through CODIS – the Combined DNA Index System, according to the news release.
Juntunen was booked into the Lewis County Jail for multiple counts related to the incident, including first-degree rape, first-degree rape of a child, first-degree child molestation, first-degree kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and second-degree assault, according to the sheriff’s office.
“This is an excellent example of the technology that exists today and how we are utilizing it to solve crimes, make arrests and send people to prison,” Sheriff Steve Mansfield stated in the news release. “Without the CODIS System this arrest would not have been possible.”