Police say they have caught an accused rapist they call the “Bad Breath Rapist” more than 16 years after he ran away from Massachusetts.
Tuen Lee was caught in Northern California on Tuesday. The Massachusetts State Police say he broke into a coworker’s home on February 2, 2005, and raped her.
“He was ultimately identified by DNA and his horrible breath, which produced the nickname ‘The Bad Breath Rapist,'” police wrote in a statement.
A jury found Lee guilty of rape and kidnapping in 2007. The U.S. Marshals Service said this. The police said he had already left the state, though.
Lee was searched for for years, with cops putting in hundreds of hours of work, police said. The case was also shown on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” according to the cops.
Then, this year, cops focused on a woman’s multimillion-dollar home in Diablo, California, which is about 25 miles east of Oakland.
They watched Lee and a woman leave that house on Tuesday and pulled over their car, according to the cops.
State police say Lee first gave them a fake name, but later he admitted his real name, which was later confirmed by fingerprints.
“His female companion, after 15 years of being together in California, never knew who he really was,” police said.
“Tuen Lee has been on the run for more than 16 years, and police are determined to find and arrest him,” acting commander of the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force Chief Inspector Sean LoPiccolo said in a statement. “We hope this brings the victim and her family peace of mind.”
