Saturday, October 7th, 2023
Man, 79, charged with rape
By Abigail Miller
CELINA - A 79-year-old Celina man appeared in in Mercer County Common Pleas Court on Thursday for child sex crimes.
Darrell M. Bollenbacher, appeared in court on one count of first-degree felony rape.
Bollenbacher, who lives at 1505 Fanning Court was arrested for allegedly engaging in sexual conduct with two victim under the age of 10 years old from April 1 to Oct. 4.
Although Bollenbacher has been arrested, he has not yet been indicted on the crime. Being charged means an individual is accused of committing a crime, while an indictment means that a grand jury has found enough evidence to formally charge them with the crime.
Celina police received a sexual abuse complaint on Wednesday from a victim representative, according to the affidavit. The complainant said they heard two alleged victims, both minors under the age of 10 years old, discussing the alleged abuse and agreeing not to say anything about it.
According to the affidavit, a Celina police officer contacted the victim representative and was told the family confronted Bollenbacher and he admitted to the claims.
After the report, Celina police officer Nathan Miller visited Bollenbacher at his residence. Allegedly when asked if he knew why they were there, Bollenbacher said yes.
Bollenbacher told police that at first, the two victims would ask for back rubs, which later escalated to one victim allegedly asking him to rub their private areas.
In addition, Bollenbacher admitted to police that he showed one of the victims a pornographic video after they had reportedly asked to see it.
Miller wrote that Bollenbacher could not provide specific dates for the abuse but said he assaulted one of the victims six to eight times, and the other victim an unknown amount of times about four to six months ago. Bollenbacher said it stopped two to three months ago.
Bollenbacher was arrested and is being held on $750,000 bond at the Mercer County Detention Facility.
At this time he has no counsel, and will appear in court Oct. 13 for a preliminary hearing.
