Rape suspect leaves trail of evidence

Deputies are looking for a Renton man who sexually assaulted a North Whidbey teenager in her home Jan. 9, the Island County Sheriff’s Office reported. Fortunately for the cops, the man left behind two cell phones and a wallet with his driver’s license and a Mexico federal ID card.

Deputies are looking for a Renton man who sexually assaulted a North Whidbey teenager in her home Jan. 9, the Island County Sheriff’s Office reported.

Fortunately for the cops, the man left behind two cell phones and a wallet with his driver’s license and a Mexico federal ID card.

Detective Ed Wallace said the suspect is 29-year-old Vicente Campos-Duenes of Renton. Investigators are asking anyone who knows his whereabouts to contact the Island County Sheriff’s Office via the dispatch center at 360-679-9567.

According to Wallace, a North Whidbey resident reported that she returned home Friday night to see the suspect running from the back of the house into a wooded area.

She checked on her 15-year-old daughter inside the house and discovered that the adult man had sexual intercourse with the underaged girl, Wallace said.

“Apparently his only motive for coming to Whidbey was to have sex with the girl,” Wallace said.

Officers from the Sheriff’s Office and the Oak Harbor Police Department responded to the scene and searched the woods for the man for about two hours. They didn’t find him, but found a cell phone he apparently dropped.

The alleged victim also had a cell phone she said “Vicente” had given her. It contained photos of a man the girl identified as the suspect.

In addition, Wallace said “a third party” turned over a wallet that Campos-Duenes apparently left behind.

The victim met Campos-Duenes through a mutual friend several weeks prior to the incident and he had kept in contact to “groom” her for the sex crime, a Sheriff’s Office press release indicates.

The sheriff’s office has probable cause to arrest Campos-Duenes for rape of a child in the third degree.