WASHINGTON — An Alexandria man was sentenced Wednesday to 32 years in prison for the rape of a jogger in Arlington, Virginia, in 2012.
Elmer Umberto Lopez-Velasquez, 39, was sentenced in an attack on the Four Mile Run Trail.
A female jogger called police in July 2012 and reported that a man approached her, showed a knife, dragged her off the trail into taller vegetation and raped her according to Arlington police. The attacker fled the scene, and his identity remained a mystery for years.
Police said the cold case was reopened in 2016 during an investigation into the sexual assault of a woman at an Arlington hotel. In that case, investigators said, the woman told them two suspects knocked on the door to her room, held her against her will using the threat of a weapon and sexually assaulted her. DNA from that case was linked to DNA collected in the 2012 rape investigation.
Lopez-Velasquez pleaded guilty to the 2016 case and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“This case brought to justice a serial sexual predator … and it’s a powerful demonstration of how intrepid victims, dogged police efforts and dedicated prosecutors make the difference and help secure our community,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Theophani Stamos in a news release.
