Arrest Made In ‘Georgetown Cuddler’ Case Years After Series Of Rapes Near Campuses

A man who police believe is a notorious sexual predator who broke into the homes of numerous young women near the Georgetown and University of Maryland campuses and raped them while they slept has been arrested.

Ernesto Mercado, 54, was charged in connection with five home-invasion sexual assaults from 2008 to 2012 in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington said that his DNA also connected him to a sixth attack in Maryland in 2009.

His arrest marks a huge break for cold case investigators trying to identify the man known as the “Georgetown Cuddler,” a nickname that spread among students even as it was widely criticized for seeming to downplay the seriousness of the attacks.

A detective with the Metropolitan Police Department condemned the “cuddler” term in a news conference Wednesday and said it caused additional harm to the victims.

“This man is a predator, and his intent was not to ‘cuddle’ his victims. Instead, his intent was to rape them. And it was only when they would wake up that the assault would end and he would flee,” MPD detective Alexander Mac Bean said.

HuffPost reached out to the attorney listed on court documents as representing Mercado but did not receive an immediate response.

Investigators said that DNA collected in the victims’ sexual assault forensic exams was analyzed in the FBI’s national database of DNA profiles and was determined to belong to the same man. Because he didn’t have a criminal history, however, they couldn’t identify him.

Mercado was eventually identified using genetic genealogy techniques, among other tools, investigators said.

The crimes Mercado is charged with took place in June 2008, July 2009, February and August 2010, and August 2012. All occurred late at night or just before dawn, Police Chief Pamela Smith said at the news conference.

The attacker gained entry to the victims’ homes in various ways, including cutting a window screen, smashing a glass door panel and removing a window air conditioning unit.

Nothing was taken during the home invasions, investigators said in court documents. In one case, a victim’s laptop and iPad were still on the bed where she had left them before going to sleep, police said.

After identifying Mercado as a suspect, investigators tried to obtain his DNA surreptitiously to determine if it was a match with the DNA found on the victims. They placed a GPS tracker on his car and installed a pole camera on the block where he lived in Arlington, Virginia, to track his movements, but failed to obtain a viable sample. Ultimately, they obtained a search warrant to perform a cheek swab on Oct. 1 and sent it to a lab for testing along with a semen sample collected from one of the victims. The lab said they matched.

Mercado graduated from the University of Maryland College Park in 1995, authorities said, and lived in College Park from 2002 to 2007. His house was about a mile from where the third victim was assaulted. He has lived in Arlington since 2012.

Mercado was charged with eight counts of felony sexual abuse. He could face a sentence of life in prison if he is convicted of sexual offenses related to two different victims, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said Wednesday.

Investigators also believe that Mercado may be connected to dozens of additional crimes that haven’t been linked “forensically,” including other home-invasion sexual assaults, burglaries and voyeurism in Georgetown and College Park from at least 2006 to 2012.

Investigators said they are continuing to investigate similar unsolved crimes in those areas during this time frame and are asking anyone who was a victim of sexual assault or who may have information related to these or other cases to contact the police.

Mercado is being held without bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10.