DNA evidence led investigators to a suspect in a pair of sexual assaults one afternoon in October in Hyattsville, Md., according to Prince George’s County police.
Police announced the arrest of 33-year-old Emerito Chicas-Savala in the sexual assault of a woman and a teenage girl Oct. 29 near Northwestern High School.
“During this investigation, detectives got samples of the suspect’s DNA,” Prince George’s County police spokeswoman Julie Parker said. “That sample matched the DNA sample obtained in a 2013 sex assault in Montgomery County.”
Two women in their 20s walked out of an apartment in the 6700 block of Belcrest Road about 1:30 p.m. Oct. 29 and were approached by a man with a gun, police said. He forced them into a wooded area and robbed them, then sexually assaulted one of them before he was startled by a noise and ran from the scene, police said.
About 20 minutes later, a man robbed two teen boys and a 14-year-old girl – all students at Northwestern High – about 100 yards from the scene of the first sex assault. The girl was sexually assaulted.
Cooperation with Montgomery County police led to investigators pinning down Chicas-Savala as the suspect in all three cases.
“They then compared their photo to the sketch that the Prince George’s County Police Department sketch artist had created,” Parker said. “Comparing the two they quickly realized they probably had their man. They then brought in the victims of the two sex assaults here, and those victims very quickly identified that person as the suspect in this case.”
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About eight hours after the 14-year-old was raped, two women were held up at knife-point in Silver Spring. Montgomery County police arrested Chicas-Savala nearby.
Chicas-Savala is facing several rape, assault and robbery charges and life in prison.
