Authorities on Thursday charged a 37-year-old man with the brutal rape and torture of a woman in northeast Minneapolis last winter.
Matthew Reinitz is jailed in lieu of $1 million bond after being charged with first-degree criminal sexual assault. His arrest on Tuesday came more than nine months after the rape allegedly took place. Authorities said that they identified Reinitz by matching a sample of his DNA from a statewide database to the DNA found in the victim.
According to a search warrant, Reinitz contacted the woman, who had placed an online sex ad on Backpages.com, and arranged for her to meet him at a house in the Beltrami neighborhood early last December. He took her inside and led her down a long hallway, where he bound her arms and legs with rope and duct-taped her mouth before sexually assaulting her, police said. When she fought back, police say, he stabbed her in the neck and back, and burned her with a "blowtorch-like device," according to court filings.
The woman was found later bleeding heavily on the steps of a nearby church and taken to Hennepin County Medical Center for a sexual assault examination. Reinitz has prior convictions, including a criminal sexual assault case that authorities say bore a striking resemblance to the latest assault.
He is expected to make his initial appearance in Hennepin County District Court on Friday.
