In 2019, DNA testing led investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Department to haul in two suspects for a set of cold-case rapes in California—identical twins, each insisting they were innocent. In fact, Kevin Konther blamed his brother for the crimes, which included the rape of a 9-year-old girl in 1995 in Lake Forest, as well as a 32-year-old woman jogging in Mission Viejo in 1998, per CBS News. It was Konther who was convicted in February 2023, however, and on Friday, he heard his fate: 140 years behind bars, the maximum penalty for his crimes, per a release from Orange County DA Todd Spitzer's office.
Konther's own loose lips led to his downfall. After the brothers' arrest, "conversations ... were covertly recorded" between Konther and his brother, in which Konther apologized to his twin, blaming a "chemical imbalance" in his brain for his actions, per the Guardian. "I have serious issues. Now I've got to pay for it, and I don't want to," Konther told his sibling in the recordings. Konther noted that he'd been "fighting that demon for a long time," before conceding to his brother: "I just hate women, that's my problem."
Konther was also found to have molested his former girlfriend's young daughter and was subsequently charged for that, as well as the two rapes. "The relentless pursuit of justice by the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Orange County District Attorney's Office has ensured that another monster who preys on young girls and young women will never be free to jump out of the bushes again," Spitzer says in the release. Konther isn't eligible for parole, per the Guardian. (More cold cases stories.)
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