Tuen Kit Lee was led away in handcuffs on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, in Danville, California. He was on the run after being convicted of sexual assault.
U.S. Marshals Service/AP
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U.S. Marshals Service/AP
DANVILLE, Calif. — A fugitive known as the “Halitati Rapist” who was on the run for more than 16 years after being convicted of sexually assaulting a co-worker in Massachusetts has been captured in the San Francisco Bay Area, authorities said this week.
Tuen Kit Lee was convicted of kidnapping and raping a young woman at knifepoint in 2007 from her home in Quincy, south of Boston, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement Tuesday. He went on the run before he was sentenced.
Officials have been covering the case in the media, and Lee’s photo has appeared on the television show “America’s Most Wanted.” Investigators tracked a man believed to be Lee to Contra Costa County, California, after photos of a man believed to be Lee appeared on social media, the department said.
U.S. Marshals and police arrested Lee on Tuesday after seeing him and a woman leaving a “multimillion-dollar home” in East Oakland’s Danville neighborhood, officials said. After Lee’s car was stopped, he initially gave a false name but admitted his true identity when pressed, authorities said. His identity was later confirmed through fingerprints.
“His female partner had lived together in California for 15 years but never knew who he was,” a statement from the Massachusetts State Police said.
Investigators said Lee broke into the victim’s Massachusetts home on February 2, 2005 and raped her.
“He was ultimately identified through DNA and his horrific breath, which earned him the nickname ‘The Bad Breath Rapist,'” a state police statement said.
Lee is in police custody in California pending his transfer to Massachusetts.
It was unclear Wednesday whether he had an attorney who could comment on his case.
