The story behind Wisconsin’s first arrest from a massive rape kits backlog

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: First arrest after Wisconsin begins testing old rape kits Aaron Heiden was the first person arrested after Wisconsin authorities began testing old rape kits.

Aaron Heiden graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point with a business degree in 2011, then landed a six-month apprenticeship with Edward Jones.

He went on to work as an investment consultant at Scottrade, where he became a rising star. In June 2015, the company promoted him to branch manager of an Eau Claire office.

He was just 26.

But while his career was taking off, state Department of Justice agents were building a sexual assault case against him.

Heiden would become the first person charged in connection with Wisconsin's massive undertaking to test rape kits never previously sent to a lab for DNA analysis.

Prosecutors charged him in February with sexually assaulting a Menasha woman in August 2008, a few months after he quit playing baseball for UW-Stevens Point and just before his sophomore year. After his arrest, Scottrade initially placed him on leave but then fired him.

Investigators tracked him down by testing rape kit evidence left in a police station for nearly a decade. The evidence was among thousands of untested kits that took years to reach labs after state authorities discovered them in 2014.

The kit landed in a crime lab last year only after the Department of Justice asked police to turn it over as part of a grant-funded effort to get the backlogged sexual assault evidence tested. The state has tested nearly 1,900 of those kits so far, with more than 2,200 left to go.

RELATED: Delays, blunders and police neglect in Wisconsin's response to rape kits

RELATED: First charges from Wisconsin rape kits testing involve Fox Valley case

RELATED: Prosecutors refused to charge sexual assault, even after rape kit DNA matched suspect

Until a lab analyst matched a DNA profile to Heiden in April 2017, investigators knew very little about the suspect in the 2008 case. The woman said her assailant called himself "Alex." She could give only an approximate physical description of him.

Heiden pleaded not guilty May 2 and declined interview requests through his attorney, Nathan Otis. The woman who reported being raped by him also declined an interview request through an advocate.

An injured woman, a case dropped

The woman was 54 — 35 years older than Heiden — in August 2008. According to authorities, she met Heiden at a Menasha bar during a night out with her daughter and a friend. The woman and Heiden then went to her home, where she reported being assaulted.

The woman reported to police that she and "Alex" began having consensual sex, but then he became physically violent. She begged him to stop because she was in pain, but he didn't.

She said he removed a condom and tried twice to have sex without it. He slammed her body against a wall and held her down. After he was finished, the man said he would walk home.

In an interview with police hours later, the woman described her attacker as a white male with a muscular build, medium brown hair and a military style trim. She said he was approximately 6'1" — the exact height listed for Heiden in UW-Stevens Point baseball records.

After the woman reported being raped to police, she visited a hospital where a nurse documented injuries to her genitals and bruises on her legs and feet. The nurse also collected skin, saliva or other evidence for DNA tests.

Fox Crossing police officials said in February that they didn't send the woman's rape kit for testing in 2008 because the state crime lab didn't ask for it. During a May court hearing, however, a detective said the case came to a halt in 2009 when police couldn't reach the woman for an update. Her phone numbers had stopped working.

"The case, basically, was inactive at that point," Det. Chris Anderson said, according to a court transcript.

Fox Crossing Police Chief Tim Seaver, whose agency investigated the case, said in an email to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that an officer also left a message with the woman's daughter in 2009 but was not able to connect with either her or the woman.

Short baseball career

Heiden was raised in the Appleton area and graduated in 2007 from Appleton East High School, where he played football and was captain of the baseball team. According to a college baseball profile of Heiden, he was a 3.0 student all four years in high school.

At UW-Stevens Point, Heiden tried out for the school’s baseball team his freshman year and landed on the roster. But he ended the season with one of the team’s worst batting averages, according to NCAA statistics. Pat Bloom, the college's baseball coach that year, said Heiden left the team and was not on the active roster in August 2008.

"Aaron was very quiet and seemed to struggle fitting in on the team," Bloom said.

Portage County and UW-Stevens Point law enforcement officials said they have no record of sexual misconduct allegations involving Heiden in Stevens Point, although campus officials said federal privacy laws prohibit them from discussing student misconduct records without a student's permission.

In Eau Claire, where Heiden lived before his arrest, local authorities similarly indicated Heiden hadn't been on their radar. The district attorney said he saw no past referrals for sexual assault charges in Eau Claire County.

Call our I-Team Hotline: 920-455-5025

Or write to: tips@gannettwisconsin.com

Prior drunken driving conviction

Heiden's DNA profile was likely added to a national offender database after he was convicted of second-offense drunken driving, a misdemeanor, in 2016.

A judge ordered Heiden to submit his DNA as a result of the conviction. State authorities declined to say whether Heiden had been previously listed in the database.

Heiden's DNA profile matched evidence from the 2008 rape kit, according to prosecutors.

He was arrested in February, released on a $3,000 bond and ordered to have no contact with the woman, court records show. His next court appearance is scheduled for later this month.

RELATED: Help us investigate Wisconsin’s treatment of rape kits

RELATED: Hundreds of rape kits untested despite Wisconsin law that required DNA analysis