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A man who raped a 14-year-old Weber County girl in 2008 — a case that was closed and forgotten by police until a rape evidence kit turned up in 2014 — was sentenced to prison Wednesday for up to life.

Troy Bradley Clark, now 47, was charged last year in 2nd District Court with two counts of first-degree felony rape of a child and two counts of third-degree felony unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

He pleaded guilty last month to rape of a child and the other counts were dismissed.

On Wednesday, Judge Ernie Jones sentenced Clark to 10 years to life at the Utah State Prison.

Clark — described by police as a friend of the family — raped the victim at least 20 times while she was under the age of 14, and another four times while she was 14 years old, charges state

The last sexual episode between Clark and the girl occurred in July 2008, when the girl's mother returned early from work and found them in bed together, charges state.

The girl was taken to Primary Children's Hospital, where semen and other evidence was collected during a forensic examination.

But she was reluctant to cooperate with police "to the point that we weren't sure what had taken place," Ogden police Lt. Danielle Croyle explained last year, adding that the detective originally assigned to the case was no longer with the Ogden police department.

Croyle said the case quickly came to a standstill — and was actually classified as "closed" by the police department — after prosecutors screened the evidence and found there was not enough evidence to file charges.

Then, in the fall of 2014, a nurse at Primary Children's Hospital discovered the victim's rape evidence kit at the back of a storage refrigerator.

After the State Crime Lab processed semen from the Code R kit, Ogden police re-opened the case and re-interviewed the victim. The victim, who thanked the detective for reaching out to her, was "able to disclose all that had happened to her," Croyle has said.

Clark was charged in February 2015 and arrested last June near Kingman, Ariz.

In 2008, at the time of the crimes, Clark was a registered sex offender in the states of Missouri and Arkansas, according to charging documents.