The man accused of being the Potomac River Rapist died by suicide Saturday morning, law enforcement sources tell News4.
They say Giles Warrick was found dead from suicide at 8:30 a.m. inside his cell at the D.C. jail. His trial for the 1998 murder of Christine Mirzayan was scheduled for the end of November.
It was not immediately clear if he left a note.
Warrick was arrested in November of 2019 after police used forensic genealogy to find him. His DNA tied him to the rapes of six women in Montgomery County, Maryland, a woman in D.C., as well as the murder of Mirzayan.
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The seven rapes happened between 1991 and 1998.
Mirzayan was 29, when she was killed in August 1998. She was walking back to her dorm at Georgetown when she was pulled off Canal Road and killed in a wooded area near the campus.
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Prosecutors in the case have notified victims of Warrick’s death.
He evaded capture for 28 years.
The youngest survivor of Warrick's attacks, Kelly, spoke exclusively to News4 Saturday about her reaction to his death.
“As much as I wanted that day in court, it’s just going to be a different way of closure, and I’m just going to have to process the anger, and the compassion and the anger and frustration,” she said. "I’m just going to have to go through those emotions. And I have a supportive husband and a family that are amazing and I know I’ll be OK, but yeah I feel bad for everybody involved.”
At the time of his arrest, Peter Newsham, D.C.'s former police chief said, "I can't begin to imagine what the families have suffered."
In 2021, when he was awaiting trial, one survivor said she was disheartened about the slow pace of the trial after waiting years for justice.
This is a developing story. Stay with News4 for more updates.
