RHINELANDER, WI (WSAU) — A Minocqua man has been charged with molesting a boy following the testing of a four-year-old rape kit.
USA Today Wisconsin reports that 26-year-old Brandon Darnick has been charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child after evidence collected in the kit turned up adult DNA samples including sperm.
The boy was two years old at the time of the incident and had told his mother he was feeling pain because a “doctor” has put something “up his butt.” A nurse took samples for DNA testing but the kit was never completed when Minocqua police closed their investigation after four days. Investigators called the toddler’s complaints difficult to understand.
Over the summer the state announced completed testing of thousands of backlogged rape kits, which has lead to at least three other arrests in prevoiusly cold cases.
Darnick is jailed in Oneida county and has entered a not guilty play to the charges, claiming that he was set up by the boy’s mother whom he knew. He will return to court on February 19th, 2019 for a pre-trial conference.
