Police arrest rape suspect after following footprints in snow

February 8, 2008 03:27 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

A man accused of raping a woman at knife-point early this morning in Chelsea was arrested after police said they followed his snowy footsteps from the scene of the alleged crime.

Police were searching for a suspect in a reported sexual assault at 3:30 a.m. on Cherry Street when officers spotted fresh footprints in otherwise undisturbed snow, according to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office. The footprints lead police into an alley, where they arrested Juan Amaro, 25, who was wearing beige pants that were similar to those described by the victim.

The footprints led police "to where he was hiding and helped locate a critical piece of evidence, the knife believed used in the attack,” said Chief Brian Kyes of the Chelsea Police Department. "We were able to corroborate the victim's story."

The 46-year-old Everett woman told investigators that she had been walking from a friend’s house to Bellingham Square when a man wearing beige pants and a gray hooded sweatshirt began to follow her. On Heard Street, the man pulled a kitchen knife, forced her underneath a railroad bridge, and said, “I also have a gun,” the woman told police.

The man raped the woman and choked her when she tried to scream for help, police said. When he was finished, the man told the victim not to get up because, according to prosecutors, he said, “I have people watching you.” Regardless, the victim called police, who rushed to the scene and followed the footprints into the alley.

Prosecutors said as Amaro was taken into custody, he told police, “I did it.” The victim identified Amaro as her attacker. Police located a grey hooded sweatshirt near where Amaro had been found in the alley. Officers also followed his footprints back to a telephone pole, where they recovered a black-handled kitchen knife wedged into a crack.

Amaro was held on $50,000 cash bail after he was arraigned in Chelsea District Court on charges of rape, kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon, and intimidation of a witness. He is scheduled to return to court on March 3 and could face life in prison if convicted.