An Enumclaw man was arrested Tuesday and stands accused of the 2003 rape and kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl in Grays Harbor County.
Paul Bieker was arrested after the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office after DNA collected after the assault was submitted to a laboratory for genealogy testing last December, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
In March of 2003, the sheriff’s office first investigated a kidnapping and rape that started on Church Road in McCleary. A 17-year-old girl was abducted when she returned home to her residence in her vehicle. The suspect bound the female and loaded her into her own vehicle. The female was taken to an undisclosed location and sexually assaulted. After sexually assaulting the female, the suspect drove her to a location near McCleary and left her in the vehicle. The victim was able to free herself and she returned to her residence where the kidnapping and assault were reported to her father who immediately called 911 to report the crimes, according to the sheriff’s office.
“The victim was taken to a hospital to be examined. Investigators collected evidence at the hospital and a DNA profile was eventually obtained for the suspect in the sexual assault,” according to the news release. “Although an exhaustive investigation was conducted, investigators were not able to identify a suspect. The suspect’s DNA profile was entered into the nationwide criminal database and it was not linked to a known person in the database.”
In 2010, the Grays Harbor Prosecuting Attorney’s Office obtained an arrest warrant for an unknown person, based on the DNA profile developed from the sample obtained from the victim.
Last December, Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office Chief Darrin Wallace submitted the DNA evidence to a laboratory for genealogy testing.
The testing revealed a short list of possible suspects that were believed to be related to the source of the suspect DNA. Investigators learned that Beiker lived in McCleary in 2003 at a residence not far from the victim’s residence. They also were able to identify more circumstantial evidence that linked Beiker to the crime. Wallace and a detective surveilled Beiker and obtained his DNA from a discarded item, according to the news release.
The item with Beiker’s DNA was submitted to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for comparison and it was determined that it was a match of the suspect in the 2003 sexual assault. Beiker was contacted by investigators in McCleary Tuesday and taken into custody.
The Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the case and are examining possible links to the case of McCleary girl.
“Due to the nature and circumstances of the crime investigators are also looking into the kidnapping and murder case of Lindsey Baum who went missing on June 26, 2009, in the city of McCleary,” according to the sheriff’s office. “Baum’s remains were located in 2018 in Kittitas County in eastern Washington.”
If anyone has any information that may be helpful in either of these cases, they are asked to call 360-964-1799 or email baumtips@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.
