DNA Databank Leads to Arrest in 1995 Rape

Seven years have passed since a 28-year-old Fountain Valley woman running an errand for her mother was kidnapped outside a convenience store by a knife-wielding man who took her to a secluded area and raped her.

On Thursday, authorities announced that they had arrested and charged a 30-year-old parolee in the 1995 crime, using DNA taken from the man during his most recent prison stint.

Robert Castillo was charged with rape and kidnap with the intent to rape. Castillo, a former Santa Ana resident, was tracked down and arrested at a Santa Ana strip mall last week without incident. He could receive a life sentence.

The arrest marked the 100th time the state has tied a suspect’s DNA to an unsolved crime, said Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.

“Technology is definitely changing police work,” said Lt. Kim Brown of the Fountain Valley Police Department. “This speaks to good crime scene investigation and good evidence preservation. I’m very confident we’ll have other unsolved cases that will be solved.”

Castillo was a “cold hit” in the state databank of convicted offenders’ DNA. His DNA, taken in January before his release from prison, where he had served time for a parole violation, matched evidence found at the scene.

Castillo became a part of the state databank because he had served time for a 1995 robbery. Since 1989, state law has required blood and saliva samples from people convicted of violent and sex crimes.

“We hold everybody accountable,” said Stephen K. Goya, a parole administrator for the state Department of Corrections. “If they think they can run and not get caught, they’re seriously mistaken.”

The cold hit was the second for Fountain Valley police. The first was also in an unsolved 1995 rape, a case in which the suspect broke into the victim’s second-floor apartment.

With 200,000 offender profiles and DNA samples from 2,500 cases in the databank, the number of cold hits in California has climbed steadily to nearly one a week. Cold-hit cases are those that have remained unsolved without any identified suspect.

The woman who was attacked outside the convenience store still lives in Orange County and continues to struggle with the crime, Brown said.

“She was quite emotional about someone being held responsible for the crime against her,” Brown said. “It brings some kind of closure to it. It can be unnerving, over the years, as to who committed this crime or why they committed this against you.”