Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Cops point to possible Aurora link to Lakewood rape suspect

AURORA | A Lakewood man arrested in connection with two separate sex assaults in metro Denver may also be connected to an Aurora sex assault, Aurora police said Tuesday.

Mark Patrick O’Leary, 32, was arrested Sunday and is being held on a $5 million bond. 

O’Leary is a suspect in a sexual assault in August in Westminster and another last month in Golden. Police say the attacks were both committed by strangers and had many similarities. As the investigation expanded, authorities say they discovered a similar attempted sexual assault in Lakewood in July.

Aurora police spokeswoman Sgt. Cassidee Carlson said investigators from Aurora believe O’Leary could be connected to an October 2009 sex assault on a woman in southeast Aurora. 

In the Aurora case and the others O’Leary is accused of, the attacker was a stranger to the victim and attacked them in their home, Carlson said. 

Aurora police have been sharing information with the other investigators for months because stranger attacks like these three are so rare, Carlson said. 

Investigators in Aurora are waiting for more evidence to come in, including some evidence seized from O’Leary’s home Sunday, before they make a decision about whether to charge him, Carlson said. 

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. 

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