OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – A Michigan man who pleaded no contest to felony charges in connection with two sexual assault cases that happened more than 20 years ago at golf courses in Oakland County and at Penn State University was sentenced to prison.
Background
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Police said DNA evidence linked Kurt Alan Rillema, 51, to the sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman at an Oakland Township golf course in 1999. DNA also linked Rillema to a similar assault at a golf course on the Penn State University campus in 2000.
Rillema was arrested on Monday, April 17, 2023, in Oakland County. He was charged with rape by forcible compulsion in Pennsylvania.
Rillema was arraigned in Rochester Hills on first-degree and second-degree criminal sexual conduct charges for the Oakland County sexual assault.
1999 Oakland Township assault
The Oakland Township sexual assault happened on Sept. 6, 1999, at the Twin Lakes Golf Club.
The victim told deputies that she had been working at a food stand on the course when an unknown man came through the back employee door, demanded she take off her clothes, and then sexually assaulted her.
Deputies obtained DNA but did not identify a suspect. The evidence was entered into a national DNA database.
The victim no longer lives in Michigan.
2000 Penn State University assault
The Penn State University sexual assault happened on July 27, 2000.
A 19-year-old woman was jogging on a Penn State University golf course when she was confronted by a man with a knife. She said he held the knife to her neck and then sexually assaulted her.
Investigators in Pennsylvania obtained evidence but never identified a suspect.
DNA links assaults in 2004
In 2004, the DNA database linked the evidence from the Oakland Township and Pennsylvania assaults.
Investigators still had not identified a suspect in either case.
The evidence in the Pennsylvania case was destroyed after a certain period of time, as state law allows. The evidence at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office had been preserved.
Investigators use DNA to ID suspect
In July 2021, investigators in Michigan and Pennsylvania started looking for new ways to identify a suspect in these cases.
Evidence from the Oakland County case was sent to Parabon Nanolabs, based in Reston, Virginia, for genetic genealogy testing.
The search included tracing the genealogy as far back as the 1700s. Investigators were able to narrow the possible suspect list to one of three brothers.
Investigators believed that Rillema, the owner of a construction company, was the prime suspect. A test of a reference sample of DNA has confirmed a match to the DNA sample in both cases, officials said.
Sentenced on no contest plea
Rillema pleaded no contest to his charges in December 2024. He was sentenced on Jan. 15, 2025, to at least 10 years in prison.
