UPDATE: Arrest made in 20-year-old child sex assault case

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office says an arrest has been made in a sexual assault on a child case from 1996.

Joel Market, 48, was arrested in Texas on March 1.

The Sheriff’s Office says it suspects Market may be linked to assaults in El Paso County and Colorado Springs that happened between 1996 and 1998.

The Sheriff’s Office says it believes that Market has physically and sexually assaulted both adults and children. It says that he has a history of going into homes through doors or windows at night, assaulting whomever he encounters and then running.

Detective Kurt Smith said there was one particularly grueling investigation, involving an assault on a 4-year-old. Investigators interviewed more than 200 people trying to find the person responsible.

“The B Street area was terrified during this time. There was a lot of media coverage and a lot of police presence in the area to try and stop these attacks that went on for six months,” said Smith.

Eventually, leads dried up and the case went cold.

“You want to help them, and it gets frustrating knowing you can’t when it goes cold like that,” said Smith.

Then, in 2014, a department on the East Coast received funding to reopen cold cases and decided to look into the case. Thanks to technology, Smith said detectives were able to link Market to the case because of fingerprints in the system for a 1998 burglary in Texas.

“It’s sort of a vindication on our part that our work wasn’t for nothing,” said Smith.

Smith said he hopes Market’s arrest brings the victim some relief.

Anyone who has been the victim of an unreported or unsolved assault who suspects Market may have been involved is asked to call Detective Kurt Smith at 719-520-7199.