An ICE DNA collection program for immigrants helped to nab a serial rapist who has been attacking women across Indianapolis for more than a day, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed.
Illegal immigrant Leonel Catalán-Torreblanca, 51, is now facing 30 charges, including rape, sexual battery, kidnapping, and strangulation related to attacks spanning 2013 to 2024, Fox News Digital reported.
Despite authorities suspecting a link between the sexual assaults, they had not been able to identify Catalan-Torreblanca as a suspect because he was not on the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database.
His only prior criminal history was a misdemeanor DUI arrest, which does not require a DNA swab, according to authorities.
But that changed after a recent ICE raid allowed Catalan-Torreblanca’s DNA profile to be entered into CODIS — and it allegedly matched DNA profiles from the locations of the alleged sexual assaults.
“Incredible work out of @FBIIndianapolis — our FBI teams and partners used advanced DNA technology and our Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) to charge the suspect,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a statement on X. --->READ MORE HERE
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| JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES |
FBI confirmed suspect's identity April 22, leading to his arrest within 4 hours at a relative's house
An illegal immigrant is facing 30 charges in a decade-long serial rape case in Marion County, Indiana, after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) DNA collection cracked the case, authorities said.
Leonel Catalan-Torreblanca is facing 30 charges, which include felonies that carry potential sentences of up to 50 years in prison under Indiana's old penal code, Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said during a news conference Wednesday.
The series of alleged sexual assaults spanned more than a decade, with the first reported incident in March 2013 and the most recent in January 2024.
Officials said, for years, local and federal investigators knew the crimes were connected because DNA profiles from the crime locations were linked to one another in the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but they lacked a match to a known offender.
Catalan-Torreblanca had previously avoided the database because his only prior criminal history was a misdemeanor DUI arrest, which does not require a DNA swab, according to authorities.
The breakthrough came recently when an ICE collection allowed Catalan-Torreblanca's DNA profile to be entered into CODIS, triggering a match to the crime scenes.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Tim O'Malley confirmed Catalan-Torreblanca was in the country illegally, though officials said they were "not entirely sure exactly where he's from originally." --->READ MORE HERE
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