After almost a year targeting, terrorizing and torturing at least seven Valley women, an accused rapist is finally behind bars.
Isaias Jimenez-Perez, 35, is now facing 19 charges ranging from multiple accounts of sexual assault, kidnapping, and aggravated assault. Court documents say Jimenez-Perez preyed on women along 27th Avenue. Then, he'd hold a knife to their bodies and threaten them to get inside his car.
Jimenez-Perez is accused of driving some women to abandoned homes nearby, and at least one into a quiet alleyway, where he'd hold his knife to their throats as he raped them. Some, for several hours.
The latest attack, according to Phoenix police, happened on September 24. The victim provided a detailed description of Jimenez-Perez and the car he was driving, leading to his arrest. Once in custody, officers tested his DNA against DNA samples taken from other sexual assault cases and matched it to at least two other incidents, one from October of 2017 and May of 2018.
Phoenix Police Sergeant Armando Carbajal says detectives noticed a pattern between cases but still didn't have enough evidence to identify a suspect, before the last attack.
“When that report came through," he said. "Detectives were able to say 'Hey this looks very similar to some of these other reports.'”
Each report showed the suspect not only targeted women on the same street, but took them to similar places, and even made the same threats to those who tried to run or scream for help.
Victims described the assailant as having broken English, telling one, "You no problem, me no problem." He told another woman, "We going to have problems? The last girl who gave me problems, I killed."
Most victims told police the suspect didn't use protection and forced himself on them several times during each of their attacks.
Jimenez-Perez was also driving the same car, according to victims.
“It was all the evidence put together, that was able to target this the suspect and identify him as being responsible for multiple cases," said Sgt. Carbajal.
