A former Uber driver accused of raping a passenger in December has been linked by DNA evidence and witness accounts to five other sexual assaults on the Charles River Esplanade and in South Boston between 2006 and 2010, authorities said Tuesday.
Alejandro Done has been charged with rape in attacks that Daniel F. Conley, a Suffolk district attorney described as "violent, predatory assaults," a series of high-profile crimes that caused widespread public unease.
The Boston Globe said that the earlier attacks received intense news coverage at the time and made Esplanade, one of the city's most popular venues, a scary place to be. The attacker preyed on lone women walking late at night.
"The Massachusetts State Police crime lab then made certain that the known sample from the 46-year-old Done matched the sample from the Cambridge victim," said Conley, according to Fox 25 as reported by Daily Mail.
"It was a direct link," Conley said, adding that the victims were consistent in their description that resembles the suspect, who had no previous derogatory record before his arrest in December.
The Uber driver is now accused of committing a series of "violent, predatory, stalking-type" assaults along the Esplanade and in South Boston on women.
Done has been connected through DNA evidence to a series of brutal attacks in Boston dating back to the summer of 2006, officials announced yesterday, according to the Boston Herald.
On two additional counts of rape and indecent assault and battery charges, Done is expecting arraignment sometime this week in Boston Municipal Court, according to Jake Wark, a spokesman for Conley.
Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole also told the Herald, that their next move is to dig into Done's past to see if he may be responsible for any other rapes both in the Boston area and across the country.
Area residents who may have been victimized by Done are encouraged to come forward, as well as those who have any knowledge that could point out to an alleged serial rapist linked to this long string of sexual violence.
