Cold Case Sexual Assault Suspect Will Stand Trial In OC

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — It took over 20 years and a hit from a genealogy database for Orange County Sheriff's Department officers to hone in on an alleged serial rapist of a 9-year-old girl in Serrano Creek Park. Now, a garage door repairman will stand trial for multiple violent cold case sexual assaults.

The 54-year-old Highland resident, Kevin Konther, a twin, allegedly molested the 9-year-old girl and the woman in south Orange County in the 1990s, and also molested another child, this time a 12-year-old girl, between 2002 and 2003.

In 2018, using the same technique that led to the arrest of the alleged Golden State Killer, Orange County investigators submitted the DNA to an ancestry website and got a match to identical twins.
By January 2019, Konther was arrested at his San Bernardino County home after investigators linked him to the 1990s attacks, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said at that time.

Two other felony counts against Konther, both aggravated sexual assault of a child and a count of aggravated sexual assault of a child - oral copulation with force or fear, were dropped, according to Orange County Superior Court.

Konther still faces two counts each of rape, forcible oral copulation of a victim and single counts each of forcible lewd act on a child and lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, all felonies. He is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 6 in the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

Investigators say Konther grabbed a then- 9-year-old girl walking home from a convenience store in Lake Forest at 6:40 p.m. on Oct. 21, 1995.

The attacker dragged her into a wooded area in Serrano Creek Park, raped her, and then let go.

She ran home, told her parents, and a search ensued that bore no results.

"These crimes were very impactful to Lake Forest," Barnes said of the attack on the girl. "It traumatized the community for years."
Barnes also noted how the girl sat down with investigators and provided a description that led to a composite sketch. He said she was "incredibly brave" to do so.

Investigators also say Konther both kidnapped then raped a 31-year-old woman at 11:30 a.m. on June 2, 1998.

She was jogging on a Mission Viejo trail near El Toro Road and Marguerite Parkway when she was dragged into some bushes and raped.

Investigators matched the DNA collected from the woman's rape and linked it to the suspect in the 9-year-old girl's attack, according to Barnes.

Investigators tied Konther to the ongoing molestation of another 12-year-old girl three different times between January 2002 and December 2003, Deputy District Attorney Michael Carroll said in January.