Man arraigned in 1986 rape, murder of Norwalk 11-year-old

The man accused of killing a Norwalk sixth grader in 1986 was arraigned Monday.

News 12 Staff

Jun 17, 2019, 6:43 PM

Updated 1,943 days ago

Share:

The man accused of killing a Norwalk sixth grader in 1986 was arraigned Monday.
Marc Karun has been charged with murder with special circumstances and kidnapping for the death of Kathleen Flynn.
The 11-year-old was raped and murdered while walking home from school. The case has haunted her community for decades.
Nearly 33 years later, 53-year-old Karun went before a judge accused of the crime. Karun would've been about 20 years old when Flynn disappeared on Sept. 23 1986.
Flynn's mother, Esther Flynn, reported her missing when she didn't return home after school. The next day, a search party and police went out and found Kathleen Flynn's body in the woods, about 100 feet from the path she used to walk back from Ponus Ridge Middle School. She had been raped and strangled.
Court documents show Karun was a potential suspect early on and was interviewed by police just two weeks after Flynn's murder due to similarities between her case and a previous sexual assault in which he was charged.
Karun was convicted of other sexual assaults after Flynn's death as well. His arrest warrant shows it was the likeness between Karun's other cases and this homicide, plus advancements in DNA technology, that ultimately led to his arrest. Karun was taken into custody as he left his home in Stetson, Maine, last week.
His bond was kept at $5 million and his case was transferred to Stamford court, which is standard for more serious crimes.
Mayor Harry Rilling attended Monday's arraignment. Rilling is the former police chief and was a lieutenant with the department at the time of the crime.