A Shreveport man is now behind bars for the kidnap and rape of a juvenile girl 14 years ago, said Sheriff Steve Prator.

Eugene Matthews Ware, 38, of the 2200 block of Morningside Drive, was arrested on Wednesday when he came in contact with Shreveport Police during an unrelated traffic incident. Officers learned there was an outstanding Caddo Sheriff’s warrant for Ware’s arrest for the kidnap and rape of a 14-year-old girl.

In April of 2002, the girl reported she was walking to a store in the Mooretown area when a car with two males inside drove up and started a conversation with her. She was then pulled into the car and taken to a wooded area in the parish where she was sexually assaulted by one of the suspects. After the assault, she asked to be taken home. On the way, she jumped from the vehicle on Kennedy Road and sought help.

For years, there was no information to identify the suspect in the case, but in February of 2016, a DNA sample provided when Ware was arrested on an unrelated drug charge was matched to the rape and kidnapping case by the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory. Further investigation was conducted by Caddo Sheriff’s Detective Mike King and the North Louisiana Criminalistics Laboratory, and an arrest warrant for Ware was obtained by the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office on August 22.

Ware was booked into the Caddo Correctional Center for First-Degree Rape and Second- Degree Kidnapping.  The investigation into the identity of the second suspect in this case is ongoing.