PHOENIX — An alleged serial rapist has been taken into custody in connection with a series of crimes in Phoenix that date as far back as 1998, authorities announced Friday.
The Phoenix Police Department said 54-year-old Abraham Ramirez is facing multiple counts of kidnapping and sexual assault for the crimes, which happened between 1998 and 2013.
The department said Ramirez was arrested for a kidnapping and sexual assault in 1994 in California, but was never convicted.
DNA evidence was collected from that case using a sexual assault kit, but it was not entered into a national database as there was no mandate to do so at the time.
Details of sexual assaults in the Valley
Four years later, on July 7, 1998, a 17-year-old girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted near 19th Avenue and Osborn Road in Phoenix.
This was the first of what would be four kidnappings and sexual assaults that were ultimately connected to the same suspect.
The second incident happened on Jan. 30, 1999, when an 18-year-old woman was assaulted near Dysart Road and Van Buren Street in Avondale.
The suspect was not connected to any further crimes until 2013, when two more assaults took place.
On April 22, 2013, a 17-year-old girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted near 63rd Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road in Phoenix.
The final incident happened on May 6, 2013, when a 20-year-old woman was assaulted near 27th and Missouri avenues in Phoenix.
How were police able to find alleged serial rapist?
After each of the crimes, DNA evidence of the suspect was collected and entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database, which led detectives to learn that the same man committed all four crimes.
However, police were not able to identify the man until last month, when the DNA collected from the 1994 sexual assault in California, where Ramirez was a suspect, was uploaded to CODIS by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
That led to the Phoenix Crime Lab being notified about a match to the four assaults in the Valley.
After just a few days, officers were able to find Ramirez and arrest him.
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