Rape Cold Case: Arrest Made 25 Years Later In Riverside County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — DNA evidence helped authorities identify and arrest an Eastvale man suspected of raping a young woman more than two decades ago, police announced Friday.

The case dates back to October 1995, when an 18-year-old victim was grabbed by a stranger while walking in the 8800 block of Indiana Avenue, said Riverside Police Department Officer Ryan Railsback.

The attacker forced the victim into a nearby apartment complex, where he sexually assaulted her, Railsback said.

The case remained cold until DNA evidence linked 49-year-old Ralph Leslie Kroll to the crime, he said.

Police, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, located and arrested Kroll at his Snowdrop Street home in Eastvale on Oct. 8.

He remains jailed at Robert Presley Detention Center in lieu of $1 million bail, pending arraignment Dec. 1 on charges of rape by force, kidnapping and the use of a deadly weapon by a sex offender, according to Railsback and court and jail records.