So-Called ‘Metrowest Serial Rapist’ Arrested in NJ

An illegal immigrant from Brazil who is believed to have been involved in a number of rape and burglary cases in the area more than a decade ago was arrested in New Jersey and will be arraigned in Worcester Superior Court on June 12.

Marcelo Goncalve Mota, the so-called "Metrowest Serial Rapist," 35, was arrested by Westborough and Hopkinton Police in Deltran, NJ, on June 11, and transported back to Massachusetts.

According to a press statement from Westborough Police Chief Alan Gordon, Mota fled the state before being charged in the case. He was later arrested in 2007 in New Jersey on a rape charge. DNA evidence allegedly linked him to cases in Massachusetts and he was indicted by a grand jury in Worcester County in 2008.

While in New Jersey, Mota was held without bail and was recently found not guilty of the charges in Moorestown, NJ, according to a post on Patch. He was arrested by police today and transported back to Massachusetts.

Mota, according to Gordon and previous press reports, faces an array of charges from the three incidents.

The first, on Aug. 5, 2003, at the Windsor Ridge Apartments on Route 9 in Westborough includes home invasion, armed burglary, assault on an occupant, aggravated rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and witness intimidation charges. Mota allegedly raped a young woman at gunpoint.

A second incident, on Aug. 13, 2003, at the Walker Meadows complex off Park Street, includes armed assault and burglary, aggravated rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and witness intimidation. The woman, 58, was raped at gun and knifepoint.

Another incident, in Hopkinton, allegedly involved a woman who was attacked at knifepoint in the second floor bedroom of her home. The woman later reportedly drove Mota from the home.

Mota, a Brazilian national, was in the country illegally, after is visa expired in 2001, according to press reports.