Cargo airline pilot arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting women in Southern California
The defendant is being held in custody in Alaska and awaiting transfer to California.
Photo: Ian Waldie / Getty Images
Authorities arrested a Riverside County resident in Alaska on suspicion of attacking three women in the town of Aliso Viejo , in Orange County.
Robert Daniel Yucas, of 51 years and a resident of Cathedral City, is allegedly guilty of sexually assaulting a woman last month near Pacific Park Drive and Alicia Parkway , as well as two other women in January and April last year in the same area of Aliso Viejo.
Yucas, army veteran and air cargo pilot, works for Kalitta Air and was detained Thursday at the Anchorage, Alaska airport after returning from a flight abroad .
Prosecutors say Robert Daniel Yucas, 51, of Cathedral City is linked by DNA evidence to several attacks, including those of three women on a running trail in Orange County. @ JakeKESQ reports. https://t.co/hfcfP3RXmp
The investigations recovered DNA from victims, but did not obtain results in the databases of the authorities, said Orange County Sheriff, Don Barnes.
They were achieved progress in the investigations thanks to an anonymous tip, through Crime Stoppers of Orange County , about a person ( Yucas) who was arrested in an unspecified case in San Diego on September 4.
The Sheriff said they took DNA samples from Yucas and coincided with the evidence recovered from the victims attacked in Aliso Viejo .
With the same way to attack the s victims
In each attack, Yucas had the same way of operating: restraining a woman on a hiking trail in Aliso Viejo and suffocating the victim until she was unconscious , then assaulting her sexually.
According to Sheriff Barnes, Yucas was a resident of Aliso Viejo between 2017 and 2019.
The authorities do not rule out that there could be more victims from Yucas.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department launched campaigns in the media to identify and arrest the suspect last year, and in August released spoken portraits of the suspect, but the attacker returned to the area to commit more attacks, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said.
Yucas was charged with three counts of kidnapping one count of forcible rape, one count of attempted forcible rape, and three counts of assault with intent to commit a sexual relationship, all considered felonies.
The accused could face a sentence of 45 years to life imprisonment if convicted of all crimes , but because a new law granting parole to defendants older than 50 years could qualify for a parole hearing 19 years after his sentence was imposed.
Yucas is being held in Anchorage, awaiting of a hearing to transfer him to California where he will be processed.
