Indy maintenance worker accused of raping woman in her apartment

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis maintenance worker is accused of raping a woman inside her apartment in August 2023.

Indiana State Police detectives arrested 34-year-old Sheldon Drost Vargas-Garcia on Tuesday after a multi-month-long investigation into the alleged rape that included obtaining DNA evidence.

Vargas-Garcia now faces two counts of rape, a Level 3 felony, in addition to a Level 6 felony charge of sexual battery.

According to court documents, the victim lived at Island Club apartments in Indianapolis in the summer of 2023. Vargas-Garcia was a maintenance worker at the apartment complex and the two began talking after the woman reported that her air conditioning wasn’t working properly.

Court documents reveal that the pair began to text at the start of August and expressed interest in getting to know each other. The pair agreed for Vargas-Garcia to stop by her apartment to “say hello.” But Vargas-Garcia is accused of taking that friendly meeting too far.

The victim told police that after a friendly conversation, Vargas-Garcia went to leave and asked for a hug. He reportedly didn’t stop at a hug, however, and began to kiss and grope at the victim, even removing her clothes despite her protests.

The victim said she told Vargas-Garcia to stop multiple times, but he kept touching her and kissing her against her will.

Approximately 20 minutes after the alleged rape, Vargas-Garcia texted the victim and told her their encounter “was fun.”

“I am kinda (in) shock of what just happened,” the victim texted him at one point during the conversation.

After the victim brought her allegations forward, Vargas-Garcia denied touching the woman and even filed a report with his boss where he stated the pair only kissed before deciding they weren’t looking for the same thing in a relationship.

Police ended up submitting the clothes the victim was wearing during the sexual assault to a state police lab. In May, police received results from the lab that confirmed that DNA found around and under the crotch area of the victim’s shorts was 4,000+ and 5,000+ times likely to originate from Vargas-Garcia.

These test results ended up leading to state police applying for a warrant which led to Vargas-Garcia’s arrest on Tuesday.

A booking photo was not provided for Vargas-Garcia.

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