Sex offender arrested in 1981 killing

SANDPOINT — A convicted sex offender who has been living in Sandpoint was arrested Friday in connection with the abduction and killing of a 6-year-old boy in California in 1981.

Kenneth Kasten Rasmuson, 53, is charged with murder. He was taken into custody at the Sandpoint Police Department, according to Sgt. Steven Chamberlain.

“He was arrested without incident,” Chamberlain said.

The charges stem from the disappearance and death of Jeffrey David Vargo of Anaheim Hills, Calif. The child was last seen on his bike near a fireworks stand in Anaheim on July 2, 1981.

Vargo’s partially clothed body was discovered the following day at a construction site in Pomona, according to the Orange County Register. The child died of asphyxia as a consequence of strangulation, Pomona Police said.

Connie Vargo told the Register she is relieved the investigation led to an arrest in her child’s death.

“We have mixed emotions, Vargo said. “After 33 years, someone is finally caught. This person took so much of our lives and now that he’s been arrested, hopefully, justice will be served so he can’t hurt anyone else.”

Chamberlain said Sandpoint Police assisted with the surveillance of Rasmuson and the collection of DNA evidence.

“I’d rather not say,” Chamberlain said when asked how the DNA evidence was collected.

The investigation also included the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police from Anaheim and Pomona, in addition to the sheriff’s office in Los Angeles County and the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office.

Rasmuson has been on the radar in Sandpoint since 2010, when he was registered as a violent sexual predator who took up residence at a home at 612 South Third Ave. Rasmuson’s relocation set the neighborhood on edge and because his home is near a small city park on the Pend Oreille River.

Rasmuson was convicted of two counts of forcible lewd conduct in Santa Barbara County, Calif., in 1981. He was convicted of kidnapping for the purpose of committing a sexual offense and forcible lewd conduct in 1987 in Los Angeles County, according to the Idaho State Police sex offender registry.

Rasmuson was released from the Atascadero State Mental Hospital in 2007 and was living in Lompoc, Calif., as of 2009, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department. He later relocated to Federal Way, Wash., and Eugene, Ore., before moving to Sandpoint, published news accounts indicate.

Rasmuson has no criminal record in Idaho, according to the state supreme court’s data repository.

Rasmuson is expected to make an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court on Monday to determine bail and the status of extradition proceedings.