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Investigators in Boston have used DNA analysis to identify and charge a suspect in the sexual assault of four women whose cases have gone unsolved for more than a decade, prosecutors said.
Investigators identified Matthew Nilo, who now lives in New Jersey, as the suspect after reviewing the cases last year, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office said. announced Monday.
The 35-year-old was charged Monday on three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with intent to rape and one count of assault and injury to indecency, according to the district attorney’s office. He pleaded not guilty, his lawyer said.
“Mr. Nilo insists he is innocent,” Nilo’s attorney Joseph Cataldo said in a statement. “He was shocked and we intend to fight the cases.”
The four attacks were reported between August 2007 and December 2008 and occurred near Terminal Street in the Charlestown neighborhood, prosecutors said. The victims were then between 23 and 44 years old.
After their cases went cold for years, the Boston Police Department is revisiting the investigation in 2022, the district attorney’s office said in the release.
“They used genetic genealogy forensics, where researchers search publicly accessible DNA databases, populated only with data users chose to make available, to narrow down the pool of potential suspects,” the release explains.
After identifying Nilo as a person of interest, investigators began surveillance on him early this year while he lived in New Jersey and worked in New York City, prosecutors said.
FBI agents were able to obtain utensils and drinking glasses that Nilo used at a corporate event, prosecutors said.
The Boston Police Crime Lab then extracted a DNA profile from one of the goggles, which matched the profile of the suspect in the three rape cases, prosecutors said.
Investigators also analyzed DNA found on a glove belonging to the victim in the December 2008 assault case, the release said. She had poked her attacker’s eyes during the incident, prosecutors said, but no forensic connection was made at the time.
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“Further testing revealed that this profile was 314 times more likely to be Matthew Nilo’s than any other male in the population,” Assistant District Attorney Lynn Feigenbaum said in court Monday.
Nilo’s attorney suggested that he challenge the legality of the FBI’s evidence collection.
“If the government obtained DNA evidence from my client without a search warrant, the constitutionality of that action will certainly and vigorously be challenged in court,” Cataldo said.
Nilo was arrested by Boston police last week announced. He is being held on $500,000 bond. If Nilo is released on bail, he must wear a GPS tracker, surrender his passport, have no contact with the victims and stay away from the area of the alleged attacks unless accompanied by his lawyer, the prosecutor’s office said.
His bail hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Cowbell, an insurance company where Nilo works, said in a statement Monday that Nilo has been “suspended pending further investigation.” Nilo was hired in January 2023, after passing a background check, the company said.
CNN’s Aaron Eggleston contributed to this report.
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