Two women who were raped at gunpoint in Massachusetts clothing story more than three decades ago are now closer to something they fought for years to achieve: justice.
Those survivors of the Dec. 27, 1989, rapes watched earlier this year as the man accused of terrorizing them, Stephen Paul Gale, was arrested in a wild police chase thousands of miles away.
It was an emotional moment for two victims who didn’t know anything about the alleged serial rapist — including his name — for nearly 35 years.
One of the women first reached out to 5 Investigates in 2021 after seeing extensive reporting on WCVB revealing the state had not tested thousands of rape kits from older cases. The two survivors of the 1989 crime wanted to know if their evidence had ever been tested. They later made contact with the Middlesex District Attorney’s office, and eventually, their persistence paid off. The DA’s office agreed to reopen the case and see if they could identify the suspect through forensic genetic genealogy.
5 Investigates covered the case in-depth, from interviewing the survivors to breaking the news that Gale had been identified and indicted for the rapes and then later captured in Los Angeles after a dramatic police chase. The team traveled to Los Angeles and Las Vegas to uncover Gale’s past as an accused fraudster on the run.
Catch up on the case through these important moments: