EVERETT — The woman, a prostitute, studied the man’s boyish face, his backward black baseball cap, dark sweatshirt, greenish-brown cargo shorts and his boots.
She described to Everett detectives her attacker down to what she called his “mutton chops,” that ended in a thin line along his jaw.
She provided details of the white 1990s Chevrolet Blazer with the dark interior. The SUV had a new CD player and smelled of cologne or aftershave.
It was May 2014 when she reported that the man placed a knife to her throat and used pepper spray on her eyes. During the confrontation, he allegedly told her to say, “I’m a dirty whore and I deserve this.”
The woman told police she could identify the suspect if she saw him again.
Police gathered DNA evidence that was sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.
Over the next two years, the woman reported spotting the suspect in different vehicles, including a Blazer, a white pickup and what looked like a green Chrysler. In some cases, she provided partial license plate numbers.
The woman’s attention to detail and follow-up calls helped detectives identify an Arlington man they believe might be a serial rapist. Dean T. Connors, 24, was arrested Tuesday for investigation of first-degree rape and was booked into the Snohomish County Jail.
The sheriff’s office late Wednesday afternoon booked the suspect for investigation of a second count of rape.
A judge set bail at $1 million in Everett District Court Wednesday afternoon.
“He clearly poses a danger to society,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Robert Grant told the judge.
Detectives with the Everett Police Department began comparing notes from the 2014 rape report and “very similar factors with prostitutes that had been closed unsolved,” court papers said. Some of those factors included suspect and vehicle descriptions as well as the behavior of the attacker.
“Detectives are working with other law enforcement agencies to investigate the other possible rape cases,” Everett police said in a press release.
In August, Everett detectives received an email from the state crime lab that reported a DNA match between the 2014 sexual assault and a Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office investigation. The county case involved a rape at knifepoint in which the victim also was a prostitute. That victim described a white pickup. Detectives later were able to identify a license plate number that led to a north Snohomish County address.
A man connected with the address had history with police, including an Everett case for indecent exposure. Traffic-related tickets connected him to vehicles similar to those described by women who’d reported being raped. The indecent exposure case involved a man in a white Chevy Blazer.
The exposure case and a report about the man allegedly patronizing a prostitute occurred in a part of North Everett known for people selling sex.
Detectives also obtained surveillance images from a 2014 shoplifting case out of Arlington. The suspect in that case was in his 20s and wore a black baseball cap backward, camouflage shorts and boots. He also had sideburns. The photos were taken 10 days after the woman reported being raped that May.
Last week, the victim of the 2014 rape identified the man from a photo montage, court papers said.
On Tuesday, the suspect reportedly told police he remembered offering a ride to the woman. He allegedly admitted to taking her to a location near a slough off the Lowell-Snohomish River Road and putting a knife to her throat while forcing her to have sex.
He also allegedly told detectives about other prostitutes that he was violent toward in the past.
“He admitted to having been with an estimated 10 prostitutes and about half of the interactions had gone overboard,” detectives wrote in court papers. “He described choking one prostitute and cutting another prostitute while holding a knife to her neck area.”
He also allegedly admitted to involvement in the Snohomish County case and “that he gets sexual gratification from the violence,” court papers said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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