Tracking a Serial Rapist, via Cell Phone Records
It was the green gloves the suspect often wore as he raped women at gunpoint, after meeting them through escort advertisements in the Washington, D.C., area, that initially caught detectives’ attention. But it was cell phone records that eventually put Mark Humphries in their sights, leading to his suicide earlier this month as he was about to be arrested by authorities in Prince George’s County, Md.
Humphries, who was 33 at the time of his death, used disposable cell phones to call potential victims in a series of sexual assaults that dated back at least to 2007, according to detectives. However, he used at least one or two several times, linking the same suspect to multiple victims. More critically, he also used the disposable phones to check his voicemail on his regular cell phone, nailing down the identification, even though authorities needed more evidence for an arrest, reports the Washington Post in a detailed page one article today about detectives’ successful search for the suspect.
They finally got it, in video surveillance footage, after another woman was attacked. Last week, as they were knocking at the door of the apartment in which he was staying, he shot himself to death.
“It wasn’t the ending we would have hoped for,” says Maj. Daniel Dusseau, who wishes he understood why Humphries allegedly committed the crimes. “Why did he do it? That’s a question that’s stuck with me, but we’re really not in a position to ask ‘why?’ We’re in a position to find out the facts and put all those pieces together.”
Before his suicide, Humphries said he didn’t rape the women: “They were just mad because I ran out while they were getting dressed and I didn’t pay,” he told Spencer Harris, the lead detective in the case.
