The Orange County Sheriff's Department and District Attorney's Office announced Monday that an arrest has been made in connection with a string of sexual assaults in Aliso Viejo, CA taking place between 2020 and 2021.
Robert Daniel Yucas, 51, of Riverside County, was taken into custody on Thursday in Anchorage, Alaska. Yucas, a military veteran, worked as a commercial cargo airline pilot with Kalitta Airlines, and was arrested on a stopover returning from a flight overseas.
Yucas has been accused of assaulting three women in residing in Aliso Viejo. The first assault allegedly occurred in Jan. 2020, and most recent in Aug. 2021. All three incidences were similar in details, and involved women being attacked at night in public parks or on jogging trails, choked unconscious and dragged into nearby brush where Yucas allegedly completed the assaults or attempted to.
He has been charged with three felony counts of kidnapping to commit a sex offense, one felony count of forcible rape, one felony count of attempted forcible rape and three felony counts of assault with intent to commit a sexual offense, according to the O.C. District Attorney's Office.
"These women, as far as we believe, were unrelated to each other, and they were just indiscriminately snatched," O.C. D.A.District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a press conference on Monday.
O.C. Sheriff Don Barnes said Yucas was identified by authorities with the help of an anonymous tipster. The tipster alerted deputies to an incident that occurred in San Diego County. Barnes said that the incident was not a sexual assault, but necessitated the collection of DNA material by San Diego authorities.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department agreed to split the DNA sample with O.C. officials. The swab was analyzed by O.C. forensic scientists, leading to the identification of Yucas. In addition to matching DNA collected from two of the Aliso Viejo assaults, the lab also identified a match to DNA collected from an incident in Riverside County.
Both the O.C. Sheriff's Department and D.A.'s Office are investigating whether Yucas committed other assaults elsewhere in California, around the U.S. or abroad. They believe, given the international nature of his piloting work, that there may be multiple unreported victims scattered around the world.
"Based on what we have learned about Mr. Yucas, I have no doubt that there are other victims that exist," Sheriff Barnes said Monday.
Yucas was being detained in Anchorage as of Monday as he awaits arraignment and likely extradition to California. O.C. prosecutors are coordinating with counterparts in Anchorage to make that happen, Spitzer said.
If convicted on several charges of sexual assault, Yucas may 39 years to life in prison.
Authorities have asked that anyone with information on Yucas or possible additional victims to call the O.C. Sheriff's Department Sexual Assault Unit at (714) 647-7419.
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