The long-time U.C. Berkeley employee accused of being a serial rapist faces 28 new charges for weapons, rape, burglary and kidnapping.
Roy Charles Waller, 58, of Benicia had been accused of raping seven women across six Northern California counties — a series of alleged crimes that led some to dub him the "NorCal rapist."
On Monday, Sacramento County District Attorney Ann Marie Schubert added charges stemming from alleged attacks in five other counties.
The crimes allegedly began in 1991, in Rohnert Park, where a 21-year-old woman said she'd been raped in her home by an intruder who entered through an unlocked door. The final sexual assault linked to Waller took place in Sacramento in 2006.
Investigators in several counties struggled for years to identify the serial rapist, but Sacramento investigators employed DNA techniques to narrow down a suspect.
“I have often said in my career that DNA is the silent witness to the truth,” said Schubert. “For 27 years, that truth was not known—until now.”
Schubert said that some of those charges have been enhanced by the sheer number of victims.
Detective Avis Beery said that Waller would break into the victims’ houses at night, often while they were asleep. Waller would bind them with duct tape and rape them, then ransack their homes or drive them to an ATM to steal their money. The suspect is also said to have called some of his victims afterwards to apologize.
The additional charges now total up to 40 filed against Waller, who had worked at U.C. Berkeley’s Environmental Health and Safety office for more than 26 years. The school has placed Waller on investigative leave since his arrest in September.