Police in Vernon and Manchester said Thursday they have charged a Manchester firefighter for four sexual assaults between 2001 and 2008 in Manchester and Vernon, a case that long confounded investigators.
Angelo Alleano Jr., 47, of Vernon, was taken into custody Wednesday and is being held in lieu of $5 million bail. He is to be arraigned Friday in Superior Court in Hartford.
Police obtained a warrant in 2010 for the serial rapist based upon DNA evidence recovered from the victims. The profile was not in any state or federal database, but DNA in the database of a company that provides DNA tests to help people learn about their ancestry had information that led to Alleano, police said.
The warrant signed in 2010 names only a “John Doe” with a specific DNA profile, but police said Thursday that Alleano is their John Doe.
He was charged with first-degree sexual assault and second-degree burglary for a sexual assault for an incident that occurred March 16, 2008 at a home on Merline Road in Vernon.
Police said Alleano is also responsible for three rapes in Manchester.
Police have worked for years to find the man responsible the rapes and consulted with the FBI Violent Crime Behavioral Analysis Unit. In 2008, police said evidence they had indicated their suspect was white or Hispanic of medium build and was in in his late 20s to mid-40s. Alleano was 28 at the time of the first known attack and 35 at the time of the last known attack.
Two of the attacks in Manchester, on Sanford and Green Manor roads, happened in a neighborhood that police call “the maze," an area of curving streets and short, cut-through lanes.
“We always said that whoever did this was intimately familiar with that neighborhood,” former Manchester detective Jeff Lampson said.
Both Lampson and former Manchester detective Max Cohen recalled that most of the male residents in the neighborhood submitted to having their DNA collected. Cohen said investigators also discussed getting DNA from police officers and firefighters, who have to be familiar with town streets, but for some reason, department leaders dismissed the suggestion.
“I’m very pleased there’s some closure for the victims and their families,” said retired Vernon Det. Don Skewes. “It’s one of those cases that always haunts you because I wasn’t ever able to resolve it. Those cases always kind of stick with you. Thanks to new technology and great police work by Manchester and Vernon it came to a resolution.”
Police said they continue to investigate and ask anyone with information to call Vernon Det. Thomas Van Tasel at 860-872-9126 or Manchester Det. James Moore at 860-645-5500.
Although they did not explicitly say it Thursday, police suspect there are more victims. In 2008, police released a statement saying it was possible there were additional victims who did not report being sexually assaulted and appealed for anyone to come forward. “Victims may have hesitated to file police reports for a number of reasons, including: fear, safety concerns, or possibly even a misplaced sense of embarrassment," police said at the time.
In the first Manchester case, the 84-year-old victim told police that a man gained entrance to her Squire Village apartment through an unlocked front door between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Aug. 6, 2001. He took a pillow from her couch, put it over her face and said, “Don’t scream, don’t scream.” He then raped the woman as she sat on her couch.
The second case was on Dec. 9, 2004. A 57-year-old woman told police the man entered her Green Manor Road house about 1 a.m. and raped the woman while she pleaded with him not to assault her frail, elderly mother asleep in an adjacent room.
In the third case, on March 23, 2007, a 37-year-old woman said she was attacked about 1:30 a.m. in her Sanford Road home. The attacker put his hand over her mouth and said “Don’t scream, don’t scream. If you don’t scream your child won’t get hurt.” The woman’s child was asleep in another room.
The last case occurred Jan. 16, 2008 in Vernon. A 61-year-old woman told police she fell asleep about 10 p.m. in her Merline Road home but was awakened by a pillow being shoved into her face. “I won’t hurt you, I want money,” the man said in what the woman described as a Russian or eastern European accent. She gave him money, then he forced her into her bedroom, masturbated for a period of time, then raped her.
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