A suspected serial rapist tied to a series of sexual assaults and kidnappings in a Boston neighborhood more than a decade ago was arrested in New Jersey, police said, after investigators tied him to the crimes using DNA technology and a public database.
Matthew Nilo, a 35-year-old attorney living in Weehawken, had previously lived in Wisconsin, California and New York before moving to the waterfront apartment complex. He had been working for a cyber insurance company Cowbell while living at the Harbor Boulevard building, when FBI agents and police arrested him on Tuesday in connection to four attacks in 2007 and 2008.
According to a warrant filed in Hudson County Court, law enforcement agents had the front desk of Nilo’s building call up to his unit, telling him he had a package delivered that needed to be picked up. Nilo was arrested when he came downstairs.
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He is now facing aggravated rape, kidnapping and assault charges among others. His employer said in a statement Wednesday the Nilo had been "suspended pending further investigation," but noted that the had passed a background check when he was hired just this past January.
Police said Nilo was identified using investigative forensic genealogy, which takes an unknown suspect's DNA and matches it to family members who voluntarily submitted their DNA to a public database. That's how investigators linked him to cases on Terminal Street in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown dating back 15 years.
Investigators said Nilo was a student living in the North End neighborhood at the time of the alleged attacks.
The technology used to tie the suspect to the crimes is relatively new and didn't exist at the time of the assaults, but it is increasingly being used to solve cases. Professor Richard Fox leads the forensics department at Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts and says like any emerging technology, there are privacy concerns.
"The technology has developed rather quickly," Fox said. "It is super powerful, for law enforcement and it is 99.9% accurate, and when I say 99.99 that means the chances of that being another individual are more than the population of the planet."
Detectives say there's also a significant amount of investigation to corroborate a suspect’s identity. However, the work is not done. Because of the 15-year gap between the attacks and Nilo's arrest, they’re concerned there may be more victims who never came forward or whose rape kits remain untested.
Although no other victims have been identified, investigators across several states are now looking for any additional woman who may have been assaulted.
Boston investigators also credited a grant to process rape kits for aiding in the break in the case.
Nilo is due back in court Thursday morning for an extradition hearing. It was unclear if he had an attorney.
NBC10 Boston's Thea DiGiammerino and Michael Rosenfield contributed to this report.
