Investigators have identified a man suspected of raping two women at gunpoint in a women's clothing store on Route 9 in Framingham, Massachusetts, more than 30 years ago, authorities announced Tuesday, asking for the public's help finding him.
Stephen Paul Gale, 71, was identified through forensic genealogy as the person who held up the Hit or Miss store as it was opening on Dec. 27, 1989, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a news conference.
Gale has been indicted four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping and one of armed robbery and is wanted for arrest, but hasn't been found. He's used aliases and lived across the country, Ryan said.
"What we are asking is that people look at these photos and any person with information regarding Mr. Gale's present location contact either the Framingham Police Department or the U.S. Marshals tip line," she said, standing in front of police renderings and a driver's license photo of Gale.
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Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673, and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide and resources for sexual assault survivors.
There is a $5,000 reward out for information to leading to Gale's arrest, said U.S. Marshal Brian Kyes, who noted, "We're going to do everything that we possibly can … to bring justice to these victims."
Gale's last known location was at a family event in the U.S. in 2007, Ryan said. He is known to have lived in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and has ties to states including Arizona and Texas, as well as Massachusetts. It wasn't clear when he left Massachusetts.
"In 1989 there were other incidents in the metropolitan area, some of which were believed to have been the work of the same individual," Ryan said, adding it remained to be seen if they could be connected to Gale.
Ryan shared details of the alleged sexual assault, which she said agonized the women who have been waiting for justice.
"You think about the lives that have been lived by the two women affected by this incident … we do not stop working on these cases, they are never closed, and we do not forget what peolpe came into this county and did," Ryan said.
Gale allegedly walked into Hit or Miss when two female employees, 18 and 29 years old, were opening up for the day and asked for help buying clothes, but then showed a .357 Magnum gun and forced the women into the back. He made the older employee, who was acting as the manager, empty the locked safe, the register and her handbag and the other employee lock the front door and write a sign saying the store would open late, Ryan said.
He locked the women in different rooms, forced them to remove their clothes and sexually assaulted them separately in the office, according to Ryan. Afterward, the women got out and fled through a back exit and to a nearby home, where they got help.
The women shared important information "despite the fact that throughout the ordeal … the defendant had continues to tell them that they should not look at him, that they should not make any wrong move," Ryan said.
