CULVER CITY, Calif.—A 35-year-old man was in custody Jan. 5 for allegedly breaking into a family’s home in the Blair Hills area of Culver City in December and sexually assaulting a young girl, police said.
Marcos Maldonado was arrested on Thursday and booked on suspicion of sexual assault, according to the Culver City Police Department.
Mr. Maldonado was being held on $1.2 million bail, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.
Culver City police said officers responded around 7:45 a.m. Dec. 2 to the home on a report of a sexual assault that occurred between 2 and 3 a.m.
Mr. Maldonado had allegedly remained in the house until about 7 a.m., police said. Responding officers canvassed the area for evidence but could not locate the suspect. Investigators did obtain surveillance video from the area showing the suspect leaving the area after the assault.
“From the day that this crime occurred, detectives have worked tirelessly to identify and locate the involved suspect,” police said in a statement. “Yesterday, through DNA evidence, the suspect in this case was identified and quickly arrested on the I-5 Freeway after leaving a downtown Los Angeles hotel and boarding a bus headed toward Bakersfield, California.”
The mother of the 12-year-old girl who was assaulted told NBC4 that she awoke that morning to her daughter urging her to call the police.
“She’s a soldier,” the mother said of her daughter. “She’s good on the outside. I think in time we will see what the damage is.”
She told NBC4 it was unclear how the man had entered the home, but he had left through the front door.
Police said there had been no additional reports of similar crimes in the area, but detectives are collaborating with other law enforcement agencies to identify any more possible victims.
