DNA Ties Burglary Suspect To Queens Sex Assault, Cops Say
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police believe a man busted for burglary on Long Island may be the same person who attacked a number of joggers in Queens.
The suspect is 45-year-old Mark Andrade, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported. He was arrested in Nassau County in connection with an attempted burglary.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said his DNA was put in a data bank and has been linked to a sexual assault in Forest Park.
He might be linked to as many as six cases altogether.
Boyce said preliminarily he's been charged with a sexual assault on March 29, 2013 on the Bridal Path in Forest Park, where he was armed with a stun gun.
"This one young lady struggled with him and actually pulled a beer can out of his back pocket, a beer bottle I should say, and then threw it. We retrieved that beer bottle as part of the crime scene, and that's where we got the DNA," Boyce said.
All of the victims were attacked on the same path between 2011 and 2013, and range in age from 13 to 69.
Glendale resident Desiree Mendez told CBS2's Andrea Grymes she never forgot that shattered feeling of being terrified to walk through Forest Park and worried she might be the next woman sexually assaulted inside.
"I do remember being very, very scared," she said. "I'm relieved. I wish they would have caught him a little bit earlier, but I mean hey better late than never."
"Technology nowadays, you can't get away with any that," another resident added. "It's not what it used to be, which is a good thing."
"I have two daughters, so I'm glad that happened," a man said.
The NYPD says it hopes to charge Andrade in more of the cases.