DNA analysis identifies suspect in series of rapes from early 1990s

Officials have arrested a man in connection with three Sacramento-area rapes between 1992 and 1994, based on genetic genealogical analysis similar to that used in identifying the suspect in the Golden State Killer investigation.

FBI agents in Atlanta took 59-year-old Mark Manteuffel into custody Friday from his home in Decatur, Ga.

The former Federal Bureau of Prisons employee and part-time lecturer at Sacramento State University will be transferred to Sacramento, where he will face a slew of charges from the district attorney’s office, including torture, rape, infliction of bodily injury with a knife, and sodomy.

Officials traced the three crimes to Manteuffel by matching DNA evidence from preserved rape kits to a relative’s DNA sample via a consumer genealogical site. Sacramento Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert did not identify Manteueffel’s relative or say which genealogy website was used to obtain the sample because the investigation is ongoing.

During a news conference Monday, officials described two of the rapes that occurred more than 25 years ago. The first occurred in May 1992. A 52-year-old woman arrived to her home in Sacramento and was sexually assaulted for three hours.

A second attack occurred in January 1994 when a 22-year-old college student jogging in a Davis neighborhood was grabbed by a masked man.

Officials said the assault survivors have been contacted. They did not comment on whether Mantefuffel knew the victims or if he may be connected to other crimes.

In 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was connected to 13 murders and 225 home invasions, including 50 rapes, throughout California from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. DeAngelo was identified as a suspect in the string of crimes after officials linked DNA evidence to information found through a genealogical website. That case is also being overseen by Schubert.

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