Transient Arrested in Series of Rape-Torture Kidnapings

A transient suspected of committing a series of brutal rapes during the last two months has been arrested after “an around-the-clock investigation” by police, Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said Friday.

David Lopez, 28, was arrested at 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the 2800 block of West Lincoln Avenue.

Lopez is suspected of committing at least four rapes in his car in Anaheim and nearby cities, including an assault that reportedly occurred on Tuesday.

A woman who accepted a ride from a man was found bound and gagged in a semi-remote area near the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. She said she had been sexually assaulted and tortured, then abandoned.

Two weeks earlier, a young female who had also accepted a ride from a man was found bound, gagged and blindfolded in a water-filled drainage ditch along Santa Ana Canyon Road in Anaheim. Police said she had also been sexually assaulted and tortured before being thrown into the ditch.

After police investigators found out about two other victims similarly assaulted, a “major task force” was formed in an effort to catch “an obvious serial rapist,” Molloy said.

Hundreds of flyers with a composite drawing of the rapist were distributed throughout areas he was thought to frequent. Information gathered led to the arrest of Lopez, Molloy said.

Police said they found several personal items in Lopez’s car that belonged to the victims.

Police did not say if the women were hospitalized.

Lopez was booked into Anaheim jail on suspicion of attempted murder, rape, kidnaping, false imprisonment, robbery, torture, aggravated mayhem and oral copulation.

He is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail, police said.