Crime & Safety

Teen Arrested for Raping Santa Cruz Woman

A DNA match linked an 18-year-old Watsonville man to the October 2010 rape of a woman walking home from a party.

Santa Cruz police arrested Octavio Castillo, 18, of Watsonville Thursday on suspicion of raping a 28-year-old woman walking home from a party on Oct. 16, 2010.

Castillo's DNA matched that found after the rape. Police got the match after arresting Castillo for car theft in February. An earlier test showed no matches, but persistence of the police and the lab got a match on Tuesday.

Santa Cruz officers arrested Castillo near his Watsonville home Thursday. 

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"This case never would have been solved without the DNA evidence," said Deputy Chief Steve Clark. "Or it might have taken a long time to solve."

Clark said officers had considered using familial DNA to track this case, as they had with the 2008 Kind Grind rape case solved last month after three years of investigation. 

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The victim was walking home between 2-3 a.m. from a party on Cedar Street to her home in Beach Flats when she ended up in Castillo's car, said Clark. She was intoxicated, and police weren't sure how she got there.

Passersby found her beaten and assaulted on Ranport Road, just outside Watsonville.


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