Alleged serial rapist caught after 27 years using genealogy search

(ABC News) – An alleged serial rapist suspected in at least 10 attacks in Northern California — some dating back almost three decades — was arrested on Thursday after genetic genealogy led authorities to the home of a University of California, Berkeley employee.

Roy Charles Waller, 58, was charged with 12 counts of forcible sexual assault and is being held without bail.

Authorities across six counties have searched for a suspect, dubbed the “NorCal Rapist,” for decades. Waller is alleged to have started his string of violent crimes in Rohnert Park, California, in June 1991. But it was a case in October 2006, the most recent tied to the suspect, which allowed police to catch the suspect.

“Waller was linked by DNA as a positive match for the DNA profile of the Nor-Cal Rapist and linked directly to a sexual assault that occurred in October 2006 in the city of Sacramento,” the Sacramento Police Department said in a statement about the arrest.

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