'East Coast Rapist' arrested after 12 years

[News_Editor]

'East Coast Rapist' arrested after 12 years

2011-03-06 03:04:40 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT (BNO NEWS) -- Police said Saturday that DNA from a man arrested in Connecticut on Friday confirmed that he is the "East Coast Rapist" who sexually abused more than a dozen women over a decade, the New Haven Register reported.

Aaron Thomas, 39, a former truck driver who lives in the city of New Haven with his girlfriend and her children, currently faces three rape counts. At a brief press conference, authorities said Thomas was charged with sexual assault in the first degree, burglary in the first degree and risk of injury to a minor and was being held on $1 million. He was also charged as a fugitive from justice in Prince William County, Virginia, with charges of rape, abduction and the use of a firearm in a felony. Thomas will be arraigned Monday.

Between 1997 and 2009, DNA confirmed the same man sexually assaulted or attempted to sexually assault 17 women in 12 incidents in Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Authorities secretly picked up a cigarette butt discarded by Thomas and matched the DNA to that from the unsolved rapes. They had been following Thomas for several days, including to a court appearance Thursday in an unrelated larceny case, looking for an opportunity to secure a DNA sample, according to the New Haven Register.



Earlier this week, the FBI launched a digital billboard campaign in Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland and Rhode Island with a sketch of the perpetrator to solicit information from the public. Police have said the East Coast Rapist watched his victims, and used a gun, a knife, a broken bottle or a screwdriver in the attacks. All the attacks took place near major highways.


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