Woman kidnapped on bike trip nearly 40 years ago, MI cops say. Now suspect ID’d
A woman was on a bike trip from her home in Wisconsin to a city in Michigan in 1986 when she was kidnapped at a public restroom and sexually assaulted, Michigan State Police said.
Nearly four decades later, a suspect has been identified through DNA testing, according to an Aug. 1 news release from troopers.
The woman came out of the public bathroom in Garden Township in August 1986 during her over 300-mile bike trip from Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin, to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and was forced into a person’s car at gunpoint, police said.
She was driven around and sexually assaulted multiple times, then released, according to troopers.
The case eventually turned cold, but it was often reviewed, state police said. It took until 2023, when a group of students at Northern Michigan University’s Cold Case Program reviewed the case, for there to be a breakthrough.
Students helped determine that Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy, a newer technique to trace familial connections through DNA evidence, could help move the case along.
A 78-year-old man was identified through this testing, and a sample of his DNA obtained through a search warrant confirmed he was a match to DNA evidence obtained nearly four decades ago, police said.
State police believe this is Michigan’s oldest sexual assault case to be solved using Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy.
The man was charged with kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct in Delta County, police said. On July 27, however, he was found dead in his Argonne, Wisconsin, home, police said.
Troopers did not identify the man because he is deceased.
Sault Ste. Marie is a 345-mile drive northwest from Detroit.
