(StraightNews.org) – A man accused of raping a woman in Massachusetts has been arrested in California after 16 years on the run. Dubbed the “Bad Breath Rapist,” Tuen Lee had been living under an assumed identity in Diablo, California, since DNA identified him as the perpetrator in the rape of a woman in her home in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 2005. The victim was tied up and left on her bed until her boyfriend discovered her hours later. She had been a waitress at a restaurant owned by Tuen Lee’s family.
DNA evidence, as well as testimony by the victim describing his notoriously bad breath, Lee was convicted of the crime in Norfolk in 2007 but fled the state. Police said they were determined to track him down and last year offered a $10,000 reward for information on his whereabouts.
Massachusetts State Police issued a statement in May saying their investigators had “caught the break” they needed and had been supplied with an address. They described how they tracked down the convicted rapist.
On May 28, several law enforcement agencies, including the Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force of Northern California, observed a man and woman leaving the Diablo address in a car and arranged for Danville Police to conduct a traffic stop. Initially, Lee gave officers a false name but ultimately confessed when fingerprints confirmed his identity.
His female companion did not know who he really was despite being in a relationship with him for 15 years.
The 55-year-old convict was detained in California until his extradition to Massachusetts, where he appeared in court on June 5. He will be sentenced in late June. Phil Tracy, his attorney, said his client had lived quietly in California for 15 years and was shocked by his arrest, but added, “There’s a day of reckoning. We’re going to have to deal with it.”
Norfolk County Superior Judge Michael Cahillane noted that the victim had waited a long time for justice.
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