DECATUR — A former federal corrections officer was arrested Friday at his home in Decatur, suspected in a series of violent rapes in California more than 20 years ago, police say.
Mark Manteuffel, 59, is accused of raping three women between 1992 and 1994, California and federal officials said in a news conference Monday.
Manteuffel retired from a series of jobs in corrections in Oklahoma, Florida and in Atlanta in 2014.
On Friday, NewsChopper 2 flew over the scene of a raid at Mantueffel's Decatur home.
Manteuffel's neighbor, Georgia Lee, told Channel 2's Nicole Carr that she had no idea what the FBI was doing at the home last week.
Lee knew Manteuffel only by the name "Mark" and knew a woman also lived at the home.
"She called him her fiancee and said that they met online," Lee said.
Carr went to the home Tuesday, but Manteuffel's fiancee did not want to speak to news crews and made sure the door was locked.
California authorities used DNA to name Manteuffel as the serial rape suspect.
Police told Carr that a geneaology service and a recent restaurant visit helped lead them right to the former corrections officer.
"There was no match in the criminal database, so for decades the identity of the attacker was unknown until recently," Sacramento police Chief Daniel Ahn said.
Authorities used the same technology that led them to the man suspected of being the Golden State Killer to track Manteuffel down.
To avoid the statute of limitations, police filed a warrant for his DNA in 2000.
Ahn said a relative's DNA, which was submitted through a geneaology service, linked authorities to Manteuffel.
Federal authorities then followed him to a restaurant to match the samples.
Police said Manteuffel used knives, and in one case, a stun gun to torture his victims.
"I didn't think it was a violent-type crime, because I didn't imagine that people would live right here and that would be the history," Lee said. "So I was really shocked at that."
Neighbors said they are just glad that Manteuffel was finally caught. Neighbor Matt Goldberg was stunned that the technology trail led to an arrest.
"They said in the report yesterday that because they still have those rape kits, they have the DNA evidence," Goldberg said. "There's such a strong argument to make sure they are tested and really that that evidence is collected in a timely fashion."
Manteuffel faces a number of rape and torture charges. Police will not say when he will be extradited for security reasons, only that it will be in the coming days.