53-year-old Kenneth Rasmuson of Sandpoint was arrested for the murder of a 6-year-old boy in 1981 on Friday. (PHOTO: Idaho State Police Sex Offender Registry) 
 
 Kenneth Rasmuson in 1981, five months after the murder of the boy in Pomona (PHOTO: Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department) 
 
 A 53-year-old Sandpoint, Idaho man has been arrested in connection to a 33-year-old cold case murder of a 6-year-old boy. 
 
 On Friday, Detectives from the Pomona Police Department in California arrested 53-year-old Kenneth Rasmuson for the murder of a 6-year-old boy in 1981. 
 
 Detectives say on July 2, 1981 6-year-old Jeffrey David Vargo left his house on his bike to go to a fireworks stand in Anaheim. A short time later, his parents found his abandoned bike in an alley. The next day, Vargo's body was found by two construction workers in Pomona. The Coroner's Office determined he had died of asphyxia due to strangulation. 
 
 Speaking to the Orange County Register, Lt. Eddie Vasquez said detectives reopened Jeffrey David Vargo's cold case and through DNA evidence, they were able to link Rasmuson to the murder. 
 
 Also talking to the Orange County Register, Vargo's mother expressed relief that a suspect in her son's murder has finally been caught. 
 
 “We have mixed emotions,” Vargo told the Register. “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.” 
 
 According to the Idaho State Police Sex Offender Registry, Rasmuson is registered as a sex offender for four offenses. Two of those offenses were in Santa Barbara, California for Lewd and Lascivious Act with a Child Under 14 Years of Age in December of 1981, five months after the disappearance of the boy in California. He was released in 1985 and was arrested two years later in May 1987 in Los Angeles for Lewd and Lascivious Acts with a Child Under 14 Years of Age and Kidnapping for Purpose of Sexual Offense. 
 
 An article from The Bonner County Bee in October 2010 warned the residents of Sandpoint that Rasmuson had just moved into the community after being released from a mental hospital in California. 
 
 Rasmuson is now in custody at the Bonner County Jail in Sandpoint and will be extradited back to Pomona to face murder charges. 
 
 Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Pomona Police Department at 909-620-2085. If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call "Crime Stoppers" at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477). 

 Community 
 
 DATE/TIME: July 3, 1981 
 
 LOCATION: 34 Edgebrook Dr. Pomona, Ca. 
 
 CRIME: 187 PC – Homicide 
 
 VICTIM: 6 Year old Male Juvenile 
 
 SUSPECT: Kenneth Rasmuson, 53 year old male, Idaho Resident 
 
 
 
 On July 2, 1981, a 6 year old male juvenile left his house on his bike to go to a fireworks stand in the city of Anaheim. The child was last seen on his bike near the fireworks stand which was located near Imperial and Santa Ana Canyon Road at approximately 5:30 PM. At approximately 7:20 PM, his parents found his bike abandoned in an alley near the fireworks stand. 
 
 
 
 On July 3, 1981, two construction workers found the child’s lifeless body at the construction site of the newly developed Edgebrook Dr. in the city of Pomona. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office determined the child died of asphyxia as a consequence of strangulation. DNA evidence was confirmed and linked to Idaho resident Kenneth Rasmuson. 
 
 
 
 On March 27, 2015, Pomona Police Department Cold Case Homicide Detectives traveled to Sandpoint Idaho to assist in the arrest Kenneth Rasmuson for the 1981 murder. Members of Sandpoint Point Police Department, FBI, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab, Bonner County District Attorney’s Office and the Anaheim Police Department also assisted with the investigation and subsequent arrest of Kenneth Rasmuson. 
 
 
 
 Rasmuson is now in custody at the Bonner County Jail in Sandpoint Idaho. He will be extradited back to Pomona California, where he will face murder charges for the 6 year old boy’s murder. 
 
 
 
 Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Pomona Police Department at 909-620-2085. If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call "Crime Stoppers" at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477). 

 Sex Offender Who Molested Boy, 3, Gets Maximum 17-Year Term 
 
 Describing Rasmuson as "an unrepentant child molester," Deputy Dist. Atty. Alfred Jenkins said that after abducting the screaming boy from in front of a house west of downtown Los Angeles, the defendant "committed an atrocious sexual act upon the child, including . . . anal penetration." 
 
 "It's been the court's experience that people who commit these offenses simply do not change," the judge said. "They ought to be locked up for as long as conceivably possible for the protection of society." 
 
 Kenneth Kasten Rasmuson, 25, of Santa Barbara, who pleaded guilty April 23 to kidnaping and child molestation charges, "cannot or will not control his behavior," Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert T. Altman said. 
 
 A registered sex offender who abducted and molested a 3-year-old boy last month and then abandoned him in a deserted area miles from home was sentenced to the maximum 17-year prison term by a judge who said these actions were as "cruel, vicious and callous as conduct can become." 
 
 "The child was abandoned in a deserted area close to a public highway and the child was naked and could have run onto the highway. . . .," Jenkins said. 
 
 In a handwritten letter to the judge, Rasmuson asked to be spared a long prison term but noted, "There is no excuse for what I did and I should be punished." 
 
 Saying he had turned to God for help, the defendant added: "There is goodness within my soul, and I have every intention of bringing it forward so that I might lead a positive, Christian life style." 
 
 Rasmuson's attorney, Deputy Public Defender John Paul Ponist, did not oppose the prison sentence but expressed the hope that his client will get psychiatric care while incarcerated. 
 
 Addressing the court Thursday, the victim's father, a janitor and construction worker, expressed both anger about Rasmuson's crime and sympathy for the defendant's family. "The right thing has been done," the slight and soft-spoken father said in halting English, referring to the prison sentence. 
 
 'Afraid of Strangers' 
 
 Later, he told reporters that his son is "getting over" the episode but still has nightmares and is "afraid of strangers." 
 
 The child's mother reported to Rasmuson's probation officer that her son, who was found wandering in Agoura the day after his April 8 abduction, "cried constantly for several nights thereafter and had no appetite," court documents show. 
 
 According to those documents, Rasmuson was sent to Atascadero State Hospital in 1982 after being declared a mentally disordered sex offender for sodomizing and orally copulating an 11-year-old Santa Barbara boy. 
 
 He was released two years ago and ordered to participate in an outpatient program after hospital authorities reported he "was responding well to treatment . . . and was not viewed as a likely danger to the health and safety of others," court documents show. 
 
 Yet only the year before, Rasmuson was told during a formal review that "a fair portion of (hospital) staff didn't see him as making much progress. . . .," the documents show. 
 
 Referring to the outpatient program, Altman said: "It's clear that those supervising the defendant had no understanding of him. . . . If anything, it's obvious that his condition was getting worse." 

 For more than three decades, the 1981 slaying of 6-year-old Jeffrey David Vargo of Anaheim remained unsolved. 
 
 The boy had been strangled and his body left behind a pile of sand at a Pomona construction site. 
 
 In 1997, Pomona police confirmed that they had reopened the case. Again the case went nowhere. 
 
 Every few years, Pomona police would assign a new officer to review the case and run the forensic evidence through a national database that includes DNA taken from convicted felons. But there were no hits. 
 
 Until late last year. 
 
 The search connected a registered sex offender who was convicted twice of molesting young boys in Southern California in the 1980s to the Pomona case. On Saturday, authorities announced they had arrested 53-year-old Kenneth Rasmuson in Idaho. He remains in custody at the Bonner County Jail in Sandpoint, Idaho, according to a statement from the Pomona Police Department. 
 
 Rasmuson is expected to appear before a local judge Monday. He will then be brought to California, where he will face murder charges, said Pomona police Lt. Eddie Vazquez. 
 
 On July 2, 1981, Vargo rode his bike to a fireworks stand in Anaheim, according to police. He was last seen near the stand at 5:30 p.m. Two hours later, his parents found his bike abandoned in an alley near the fireworks stand. 
 
 The next day, two construction workers found the child's body at the construction site in Pomona. The coroner's office said the boy was strangled. 
 
 In 1982, Rasmuson was sent to Atascadero State Hospital after being declared a mentally disordered sex offender for sodomizing and orally copulating an 11-year-old Santa Barbara boy. He was released after two years. 
 
 In 1987, he was tried and convicted of kidnapping and molesting a 3-year-old boy in Los Angeles. Rasmuson abandoned the boy naked in a deserted area miles from his home. A judge described his actions as "cruel, vicious and callous as conduct can become," according to The Times. 
 
 That judge sentenced Rasmuson to 17 years in prison. 
 
 For more California breaking news, follow AngelJennings. She can also be reached at angel.jennings @latimes.com. 

 An Idaho man with a history of sex crimes has been arrested for the 1981 slaying of a 6-year-old Anaheim Hills boy found strangled and partially clothed at a construction site in Pomona. 
 
 
 
 Detectives reopened Jeffrey David Vargo's cold case, and through DNA testing arrested Kenneth Rasmuson, Lt. Eddie Vasquez said. Rasmuson is a twice-convicted violent sexual predator. 
 
 
 
 Rasmuson is currently in custody at the Bonner County Jail in Sandpoint, Idaho. 
 
 
 
 Rasmuson will soon be extradited back to Pomona, where he will face murder charges for the boy’s slaying, Vasquez said. 
 
 
 
 Connie Vargo told the Register she is relieved the cold-case investigation has led to an arrest in her child's death. 
 
 
 
 She said her son would have been 40 now. 
 
 
 
 “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.” 
 
 
 
 Vargo said detectives informed her a few weeks ago that they had a person in custody. 
 
 
 
 “To be honest with you, we’re still in disbelief," she said. "Things have come up in the past and there have been leads which have gone nowhere. I don’t know what to expect with this one.” 
 
 
 
 Rasmuson has a lengthy criminal record for child molestation dating back to 1981, according to several news reports. 
 
 
 
 At age 19, he was arrested for molesting an 11-year-old child in Santa Barbara. He served in state prison before being committed to Atascadero State Hospital and released in 1985. Two years later, he re-offended, pleading guilty to abducting and molesting a three-year-old boy. 
 
 
 
 He was sentenced to 17 years in prison then was granted parole in 1996 and transferred to Atascadero under the Sexually Violent Predator Act, according to the Associated Press. 
 
 
 
 He was granted conditional release in 2007, according to news report. He bounced around California, Washington, and Oregon before settling in Idaho in 2010. 
 
 
 
 The Bonner County Daily Bee wrote that year, "Rasmuson’s relocation to Sandpoint has many in the community on edge. Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood said his office has received scores of e-mails and phone calls from concerned residents." 
 
 
 
 Vargo said she hopes the arrest will finally help her heal. 
 
 
 
 “We had another son to raise and life goes on,” said Vargo, referring to Jeffrey's older brother. “It’s been hard but we always remember him.” 
 
 
 

– Jeffrey David Vargo's body turned up at a Pomona construction site the day before July 4, 1981. The 6-year-old California boy had last been seen the day prior, at a fireworks stand he had bicycled to; he had been strangled. The three decades since have been ones of starts and stops. Over the years, various officers ran the evidence they had through a national database, with no luck. The case was reopened in 1997, but nothing came of that. But as the Los Angeles Times reports, in late 2014, police got a hit, and they yesterday revealed their progress. A press release from the department states that Cold Case Homicide Detectives on Friday "traveled to Sandpoint, Idaho, to assist in the arrest Kenneth Rasmuson for the 1981 murder." Rasmuson, now 53, has lived in Idaho since 2010, reports the OC Register, ending up there after serving two prison terms for molesting young boys in December 1981 and May 1987, reports KHQ. The Times' own report on the 1987 case is jarring. It cites the prosecution's timeline: Rasmuson snatched a screaming 3-year-old, "committed an atrocious sexual act upon the child," then abandoned him in a deserted area near a highway. The judge handed Rasmuson a maximum 17-year prison sentence for that crime, calling it as "cruel, vicious and callous as conduct can become." Rasmuson will appear in a local court tomorrow and then be extradited to California to face murder charges. Jeffrey's mom, Connie Vargo, tells the Register, "To be honest with you, we're still in disbelief."