Moscow man suspected of raping up to 90 women since 1987

USPA News - Police in the Russian capital of Moscow have arrested an elderly man suspected of raping at least 19 young women over a period spanning nearly three decades, but investigators suspect the man may be responsible for the sexual assaults of up to 90 women, prosecutors said on Friday. Valery Makarenkov, 67, was arrested on Thursday by officers patrolling in Moscow`s southeast, said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia`s Investigative Committee.

He said the arrest happened just three days after Makarenkov allegedly tried to rape a 29-year-old woman in Kuzminki Park. "After several years of hard analytical work, Valery Makarenkov, who was born in 1947, was detained," Markin said. "According to investigators, in the period from 1987 to 2014, he carried out a series of attacks on women in Moscow that were associated with robberies." Investigators say many of the attacks followed a specific `modus operandi` in which Makarenkov would pose as an ordinary cyclist late at night or early in the morning. He would follow his victims in Moscow parks or in the backyards of residential buildings, where he would choke the women unconscious and rape them before stealing any valuable possessions they were carrying. "Thanks to the modern high-tech equipment of the Russian Investigative Committee`s Main Criminalistics Department, a rapid molecular-genetic study of the suspect`s DNA samples allowed investigators to quickly establish his involvement in 19 crimes," Markin explained. "The young woman who was attacked three days earlier confidently identified the suspect." Investigators however believe Makarenkov was responsible for at least dozens of rapes, possibly as many as 90. In the years prior to Makarenkov`s arrest, investigators had studied handwriting they had of the suspect and compiled a list of Moscow residents - numbering around 20,000 people - who looked similar to the suspect`s description and were about the same age. "The complex investigation is currently still underway, and investigators will send charges to the court," Markin added. As part of the investigation into Makarenkov`s alleged crimes, investigators had previously also been able to catch another serial rapist. The other suspect, who had no connection to Makarenkov, is believed to have carried out a series of similar crimes on young women and investigators have so far identified at least seven victims.