On August 23, 2005, police investigated a rape involving Jeffrey Noel Van Arkel, who was 25, at the time of the incident and a 16-year-old female victim. During the investigation, a sexual assault kit was completed and routed to the Oregon State Police Crime Lab.
Recently, Oregon received a grant to test backlogged sexual assault cases, and in September of 2016, Eugene Police received information from the Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory of a possible connection to Van Arkel, who was found to live in Walker Lake, Nevada. EPD detectives contacted the Mineral County Sheriff’s Department regarding the information, and they arrested Van Arkel on probable cause for Rape in the First Degree and Rape in the Third Degree.