U.S. Marshals Arrest Child Rape Suspect in Carson City

The U.S. Marshals Service, supported by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Carson City Nevada Sheriff’s Department, announce the arrest of Wilbur James Ventling, aka John James Stewart, in Carson City, Nevada. Ventling, 62, of Carson City, Nevada, was arrested on October 9, 2007, for the May, 1979 rape of a nine year old girl in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada.

In addition to the May 1979 rape, Ventling was also suspected of committing a total of ten similar offenses in the Calgary, Alberta, Canada area between July 1978 and July 1979. The age of the female victims ranged from five to thirteen. Ventling, while using the Stewart alias, was arrested related to these violations in September 1979 and remanded to an Alberta, Canada mental health facility for a psychiatric examination. Ventling escaped from this facility in late September 1979 and fled to the United States.

Fingerprints taken in 1979 confirmed that Ventling and Stewart were the same person. It was determined that Ventling was unlawfully at large in Canada in 1979 due to his May 1978 escape from a psychiatric hospital in Colorado. Similar to the Alberta, Canada escape, Ventling had been at the Colorado hospital for a psychiatric examination stemming from a sex assault.

In October 1979, Ventling was arrested in Las Vegas on charges of kidnapping, lewdness with a minor under 14 years and attempted sexual assault. Ventling was convicted and sentenced to forty years in prison for these crimes. Ventling successfully appealed one of his sentences, and was subsequently released from prison in September 1997.

In March, 2003, Royal Canadian Mounted Police re-opened the May 1979 rape investigation related to Ventling. DNA samples from the May 1979 crime scene were successfully matched to the DNA profile of Ventling. A joint RCMP and US Marshals Service investigation led authorities to Ventling’s address in Carson City, Nevada. Canadian authorities requested and were granted a United States arrest warrant for Ventling based in part on the evidence and investigation mentioned above.

Ventling’s twenty-eight (28) years of evading justice ended at approximately 1 p.m. on Tuesday, October 9, 2007. A U.S. Marshals Service led team arrested Ventling at his home in Carson City, Nevada, where he had been living as a registered sex offender in the state of Nevada. Ventling is being held in the Washoe County Nevada jail on the charge of Fugitive from a Foreign Country to the United States. Extradition proceedings are pending for his removal to Canada to face charges of Rape and Causing Bodily Harm With Intent to Wound.

The U.S. Marshals Service is the primary agency for the investigation and apprehension of federal and state fugitives in the United States. The removal of these fugitives from the streets is instrumental in reducing violent crime in all Northern Nevada communities.

The U.S. Marshals Service is the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency. Annually, U.S. Marshals arrest more than 50 percent of all federal fugitives and serve more federal warrants than all other federal agencies combined. For more information on other USMS Top 15 fugitives and USMS Major Cases, go to www.usmarshals.gov.