8/05/2025

UPPER MICHIGAN - After 39 years of investigation into a kidnapping and sexual assault in Delta County, The Michigan State Police (MSP) have identified and criminally charged a suspect.  In 1986, a female reported she was assaulted while taking a bike trip from her home in Lac du Flambeau, WI to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. She said she stopped to use a public bathroom at the Big Fishdam River access off US-2 in Garden Township when she was forced at gunpoint into the suspect’s car where she was assaulted multiple times before being released.  The case went cold with no suspect ever being charged until an NMU’s Criminal Justice Program student looking to get real-world experience with forensic analysis, investigation, and the criminal justice system reexamined old evidence using the latest technology identifying a possible suspect.  After obtaining a search warrant for the suspect’s DNA, detectives found the suspects DNA matched samples collected in 1986.  The Delta County Prosecutor’s Office issued charges of kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct for the now 78-year-old male living in Argonee, WI, however The suspect was found dead in his home prior to his arrest.  Due to the suspect’s death occurring prior to arraignment, his name is being withheld but police say his criminal background shows he was arrested in the past on similar charges.  The Forest County Sheriff’s Office is overseeing the suspect’s death investigation