Massachusetts fugitive dubbed the ‘bad breath rapist’ captured in California after 16 years at large

DANVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A fugitive dubbed the “bad breath rapist” has been arrested in the San Francisco Bay Area more than 16 years after he fled following his conviction for sexually assaulting a coworker in Massachusetts, authorities said this week.

Tuen Kit Lee was found guilty at a 2007 trial of the kidnapping and rape of the young woman at knifepoint at her home in Quincy, south of Boston, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement Tuesday. He went on the run before he was to be sentenced.

Officials kept the case alive in the media and Lee’s photo appeared several times on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted.” After images surfaced on social media of a man believed to be Lee, investigators were able to track him to California’s Contra Costa County, the service said.

U.S. Marshals and police officers arrested Lee on Tuesday after seeing him and a woman leave a “multi-million dollar residence” near Danville, just east of Oakland, officials said. After his car was pulled over, Lee initially provided a false name but confessed when pressed about his true identity, authorities said. He was later identified via fingerprints.

“His female companion, after 15 years of being together in California, never knew who he really was,” said a Massachusetts State Police statement.

READ MORE California advances measures targeting AI discrimination and deepfakes Proposed gender identity measure fails to qualify for California ballot Rapper Sean Kingston agrees to return to Florida, where he and mother are charged with $1M in fraud

Investigators said Lee broke into the victim’s Massachusetts home on Feb. 2, 2005, and raped her.

“He was ultimately identified by DNA and his horrible breath, which produced the nickname “The Bad Breath Rapist,” the state police statement said.

Lee was being held by police in California pending his expected transfer to Massachusetts.

It wasn’t known Wednesday if he has an attorney who could comment on his case.