OAKLEY — A man who authorities say is the primary suspect in the kidnapping and rape of a girl more than 20 years ago has been arrested and was in custody Tuesday in Contra Costa County, authorities said.
Two Oakley police detectives with help from personnel with the U.S. Marshals Service, Coeur d’Alene (Idaho) police and Kootenai County (Idaho) Sheriff’s Office arrested 49-year-old Eric Ferguson in Idaho on May 16, according to a statement from the City of Oakley.
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They served an arrest warrant with charges filed by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office against Ferguson for rape of an incompetent person, forcible oral copulation and kidnapping for rape, according to court records.
Ferguson was in custody Tuesday at the Martinez Detention Facility in lieu of $3 million bail, according to jail records.
The rape happened in April 2002 near Laurel Road in Oakley. According to Oakley Police Chief Paul Beard, a young girl was walking her dog and was approached by a man who got out of a vehicle and pointed a gun at her, ordered her into the back seat of the vehicle and forced her to perform sexual acts on him at gun point.
Beard said that at some point the girl escaped and went to a nearby house for help. Investigators per protocol collected DNA samples at the scene, Beard said, but the suspect got away.
In 2022, Oakley police received a match from the national Combined DNA Index System, a database of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crimes and missing persons, as well as those who have been arrested and detained.
“I am truly in awe of all the work that was put into this case,” Beard said in a statement. “Everything from the foresight 22 years ago to collect DNA evidence to all of the cooperation and assistance we received along the way has yielded powerful results.”
Beard said the match identified a man living in Idaho. Authorities served a warrant at the person’s Idaho home on May 12, allowing them to collect a DNA sample from him. An exam by the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office Laboratory said the DNA sample was a direct match to the one collected after the 2002 sexual assault.
Four days later, authorities made the arrest.
Ferguson is next due in court on June 6.