Boston ‘bad breath rapist’ arrested after 16 years in California: NPR

DANVILLE, California. — A fugitive nicknamed the “bad breath rapist” was arrested in the San Francisco Bay Area more than 16 years after fleeing following his conviction for sexually assaulting a co-worker in Massachusetts, authorities said this week .

Tuen Kit Lee was convicted in a 2007 trial of kidnapping and raping the young woman at knifepoint from her home in Quincy, south of Boston, the US Marshals Service said Tuesday in a press release. He fled before being convicted.

Authorities kept the case alive in the media, and Lee’s photo appeared several times on the television show “America’s Most Wanted.” After images surfaced on social media of a man believed to be Lee, investigators were able to track him to Contra Costa County in California, the department said.

U.S. Marshals and police officers arrested Lee Tuesday after seeing him and a woman leaving a “multimillion-dollar residence” near Danville, just east of Oakland, officials said. After his car was stopped, Lee initially provided a false name, but confessed when asked for his real identity, authorities said. He was then identified using his fingerprints.

“His partner, after 15 years of living together in California, never knew who he really was,” Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.

Investigators said Lee broke into the victim’s Massachusetts home on February 1. on January 2, 2005 and raped her.

“He was ultimately identified based on his DNA and horrible breath, earning him the nickname ‘Bad Breath Rapist,’” the state police statement said.

Lee was in police custody in California awaiting his planned transfer to Massachusetts.

It was unclear Wednesday whether he had an attorney who could comment on his case.