(Redwood Falls, MN) – A Redwood Falls man has been criminally charged after his sixteen-year-old cousin came forward to report a rape she says happened when she was a young child.

Marcel Dylan Zephier, 28, was charged Friday in Redwood County Court with two counts of felony first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to the complaint, Zephier’s cousin told police during a May forensic interview that he had raped her during the summertime when she was 9-year-old.  The victim said she’d gone to Zephier’s house on the Lower Sioux Indian community looking for other children.  Zephier allegedly told her the children were in the back room, but they were not, according to the complaint.

The victim told police that Zephier, who was approximately 21 at the time, forced her on the bed and raped her.  Zephier hit her and threatened her family, according to the complaint.

The victim’s father told police that Zephier would have had access to the victim during the time she reported the rape had occurred.

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