The Phoenix Police Department announced last night that an arrest has been made in a sexual assault/ kidnapping that happened in 1999.
The Phoenix P.D. says DNA evidence retrieved at the scene of the alleged crimes match the DNA of Clayton Roinuse, who was arrested yesterday.
According to police, on January 6, 1999, Roinuse went into a business near 300 East Camelback Road. He robbed the store and kidnapped an employee.
Roinuse, police say, then took the woman to the East Valley, where he
sexually assaulted her. When he was done, he shot the woman and left her for
dead in the desert -- only, she wasn't dead.
The victim managed to crawl across the desert "a great distance away"
from where she'd been sexually assaulted, shot, and left to die.
She bumped into a man who happened to be in the area hunting.
The hunter called police and the woman was saved by paramedics.
It's unclear how the PPD obtained Roinuse's DNA. In many cases, when DNA
is matched in a cold case crime, the person to whom the DNA belongs is
already in custody for another crime. An inmate's DNA is collected
whenever a convict enters the corrections system and stored in a
database. The Phoenix Police Department did not immediately respond to
our email asking if that's how Roinuse's was obtained.
In total, Roinuse faces charges of attempted murder, armed robbery, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
