A West Bloomfield man, Kurt Alan Rillema, aged 52, has received a prison sentence for a sexual assault committed more than two decades ago at a Michigan golf course. According to The Detroit News, the sentence of 10 to 15 years was handed down yesterday in Oakland County Circuit Court for third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.
The conviction came about as a result of advancements in DNA technology, which linked Rillema to the 1999 attack. The victim was working at Twin Lakes Golf Club when she was assaulted. While immediate DNA evidence did not lead to a suspect at that time, subsequent genetic genealogy testing connected Rillema to the case according to a press release mentioned by CBS Detroit. The innovative approach by law enforcement pieced together a family tree from public databases, which eventually narrowed the suspect pool to three individuals before honing in on Rillema.
Rillema also faced accusations of a similar assault in 2000 at a Penn State University golf course. As reported by FOX 2 Detroit, both cases were linked via DNA evidence, yet Rillema was not identified as a suspect until recently. The case saw a major development when investigators collected Rillema’s DNA from a discarded coffee cup, providing the crucial match…