Police have named who they suspect to be "the cuddler", accused of several home invasion rapes and assaults in the Washington D.C. area, and were able to ID him using popular ancestry tracking websites.
Investigators said Ernesto Ramon Mercado, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, identified intoxicated young women in the D.C. area "through stalking and peeping Tom activities" and then broke into their homes and assaulted them.
Mercado came to be known as the "Georgetown cuddler," but Metropolitan Police Department of D.C. Detective Alexander Mac Bean said the label belies Mercado's sinister intentions.
"This man is a predator, and his intent was not to cuddle these women, but instead his intent was to rape them," Mac Bean told NBC4 Washington.
Police connected Mercado to the string of assaults using genetic genealogy. It allows police officers to match DNA from crime scenes to any DNA submitted to a consumer genealogy service, such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com.
After connecting him to the cold cases, authorities discovered Mercado may be a rideshare driver. They moved swiftly to arrest him in case he attempted to assault another victim.
"The reward from a case like this is being able to tell a victim years later that we've identified the perpetrator that committed this crime," Mac Bean said.
NBC4 Washington reported Mercado may be responsible for dozens of sexual assault, burglary, and voyeurism cases dating back to 2005. By releasing Mercado's picture, authorities hope if there are other victims that they will come forward.
Mercado was charged with first- and second-degree sexual abuse in connection with a series of invasion rapes. He faces life in prison if convicted.
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