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Former Mason man convicted of sexually assaulting disabled woman in 2000

Posted at 5:06 PM, Oct 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-06 00:41:37-04

MASON, Ohio -- A former Mason resident was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting a woman with developmental disabilities so severe she could neither walk nor speak.

According to Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell, Brian Sundin broke into Brookside Extended Care in 2000 and assaulted one of the residents. A nurse discovered blood and semen in the victim's diaper the following morning. 

By 2011, when the victim died, that evidence had long haunted investigators but failed to produce a DNA match in the years since the assault. It wasn't until February 2016 that a DNA cross-check with the Florida Department of Corrections identified 68-year-old Sundin as a match.

He was a free man at the time the match was made, but arrested and convicted later in the year for a theft offense in Tennessee. Ohioan authorities then began the process of extraditing him back to Warren County, where he pleaded guilty to the rape Thursday.

"I'm just so grateful that advances in technology gave us the ability to solve this horrific crime and bring some measure of closure to the victim's family, even after her death," Fornshell said in a news release.

Brookside Extended Care has increased its security by installing alarms, electronic locks and surveillance cameras since the event.