Calgary, AB,
29
June
2017
|
09:19
America/Denver

Police lay charges in 20-year-old sexual assault case

The Calgary Police Sex Crimes Unit has charged a man in connection with a sexual assault that occurred 20 years ago in the Beltline.

At approximately 5:30 a.m., on Thursday, Aug. 14, 1997, a woman was walking along 8 Street S.W., when a man approached her somewhere between 10 and 11 Avenues. He pulled the woman into the alley, threatened her and then sexually assaulted her.

Following the assault, the man made the woman walk a few blocks through alleyways before leaving her and fleeing. The crime remained unsolved until recently.

In November last year, a man in custody on another matter contacted the Innisfail RCMP to turn himself in for a sexual assault that occurred sometime in the late 1990s. The Calgary Police Service Sex Crimes Unit followed up on the new information from the RCMP and reviewed multiple unsolved cases from that period to find a match. DNA evidence led investigators to lay charges in the 1997 sexual assault.

Charles Henry DESJARLAIS, 54, of Bowden, is charged with sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon, uttering threats and kidnapping. He remains in custody.

The Calgary Police Service would like to thank the RCMP for their assistance with this investigation.

Case #9718555/2788