A Massachusetts man who fled during his rape trial in 2007, and was convicted in absentia, had been living for more than a decade with a woman in California who had no idea he was a wanted fugitive, the authorities said.
But the man’s hidden past surfaced on Tuesday, when law enforcement agents in Danville, Calif., about 30 miles east of San Francisco, arrested the man, Tuen Kit Lee, 55, who was known as the “bad breath rapist,” the Massachusetts State Police said.
Mr. Lee, who had fled just before closing arguments at his trial in Quincy, Mass., had been living with the woman, a flower shop owner, in her multimillion-dollar home in Diablo, a community of about 1,200 residents just outside Danville, the state police said.
Chris Tamayo, a senior inspector with U.S.
Marshals Service in Northern California, said that Mr. Lee had initially fled to New York and had then taken a bus to San Francisco, where he met the woman who became his companion for the past 10 years.
Persons:
Tuen Kit Lee, Lee, Chris Tamayo, Mr
Organizations:
Massachusetts State Police, U.S . Marshals Service
Locations:
Massachusetts, California, Danville , Calif, San Francisco, Quincy , Mass, Danville, Northern California, New York