DNA leads to suspect in decade-old Maplewood kidnapping and sexual assault

Kristi Miller, Pioneer Press
Updated ·2 min read
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A man who lives less than a mile from where authorities say he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 25-year-old woman was charged in the decade-old case this week based on DNA evidence.

Gregory Alan Trepanier, 55, was charged this week in Ramsey County District Court with one felony count of kidnapping and one felony count of attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was 45 at the time of the assault.

The criminal complaint gave the following details:

On Nov. 23, 2014, a 25-year-old woman went to a Maplewood bar with friends. After the bar closed, the women left and the 25-year-old got into her own vehicle alone. When she began backing out of her parking spot, a man wearing a black ski mask with a red stripe, a black hooded sweatshirt and blue sweatpants opened her passenger side door and got inside her vehicle.

The man ordered her to drive south on White Bear Avenue and directed her to a senior living facility on the 2700 block of Hazelwood Street in Maplewood, where he told her to park. He put a gun on his lap facing the woman and threatened to hurt her if she didn’t comply with his demands.

He told her, “I didn’t pick you for any reason at all,” and apologized several times. At one point, he got out of her vehicle and left on foot.

Detectives were able to gather DNA evidence from the woman’s vehicle.

At the time, the BCA was unable to connect the DNA evidence to a suspect. Recently, however, BCA scientists found a match after running the sample through their database as they routinely do because new DNA profiles are often added to the database. On Feb. 5, the DNA from the kidnapping and assault returned a match to Trepanier, whose DNA had been submitted in a separate case.

A search warrant on Feb. 29, 2024 allowed authorities to collect a DNA sample from Trepanier. After that, on March 13, the BCA said the match would not occur “more than once among unrelated individuals in the world population.”

Trepanier was convicted of stalking and indecent exposure in October of 2018. In addition he is under investigation in connection with two unsolved kidnappings in the area that also involve the use of a firearm and threats of sexual assault.

He denied being involved in the kidnapping and assault, the complaint stated. Authorities say they consider him a high risk to public safety.

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