GRAND CHUTE, WI (WTAQ) — Grand Chute Police say a suspect in a cold case sexual assault and kidnapping has been arrested more than 21 years after the crime was committed.
John E.W. Carter, 51, was arrested in Wisconsin Rapids on Friday. Police say Carter is the man responsible for the February 12th, 2000 kidnapping of a 16-year-old girl inside of the Younkers store where she worked at the Fox River Mall. Carter had approached the girl after she got off work with a handgun, forced her into the passenger seat of her car, and drove her to a nearby location where he sexually assaulted her. Afterwards, the suspect fled on foot.
In April of that year, the assault was linked to a 1999 sexual assault in Janesville through DNA evidence.
In September 2019, a detective was assigned to the case, which resulted in the identification of Carter as the suspect. He later admitted to the assault in an interview, according to a criminal complaint.
“Some of the investigative steps that the officers utilized to identify him as a suspect were withholding at this point time simply because we don’t want to unnecessarily identify people through that revelation,” said Chief Greg Peterson.
Peterson says the department doesn’t want to compromise people who assisted in the investigation at this point, although their cooperation may become known in the future.
While investigators were able to use that information to narrow their search and focus on Carter, they didn’t have quite enough to confirm him as a suspect, until DNA samples were tested.
“That came after some surveillance and recovery of DNA that allowed us to do a comparison between his DNA and [DNA] that was recovered during the crime back in 2000,” Peterson told WTAQ News. “We recovered the DNA directly from items that he had contact with, and we submitted it down to the state crime lab
where they were able to compare his DNA from those recovered items with that which was recovered back in 2000.”
With the arrest, Peterson says investigators made a call to the victim.
“There is satisfaction in the eyes of the investigators who were involved, because they were able to make that phone call to that victim to let that victim know that the person that we believe was involved has been taken into custody…They have the opportunity to bring some closure to the victim, because for 21 years, that victim has lived with the fact that the person responsible has has not been brought to justice,” Peterson said. “Of course, just the fact that it’s a 21 year old case and that these investigators were able to re-examine it then find some direction in it was also rewarding for them.”
Carter has been charged in Outagamie County Circuit Court with First Degree Sexual Assault and Kidnapping, Use of a Dangerous Weapon. He will make his initial appearance on Monday April 19th, 2021 at 3:30pm.
