After 37 years they identify “the Beast of Bondi”, the rapist who terrorized Sydney: his family described him as an exemplary father

Thirty-seven years after the first in a series of rapes perpetrated by “the beast of bondi“, the Australian police were able to close the investigation into these cases by identifying the rapist who terrorized the city of Sydney for nearly two decades.

that man who raped – or attempted to rape – 31 women between 1985 and 2001 in the quiet neighborhoods of the city of Sydney, where the famous Bondi beach is located, is called keith simsas revealed in a special report from the program 60 minuteswhich will air next Sunday.

The discovery closes a case after four decades of investigation, but ironically comes months after Simms died last February at the age of 66.

Simms’ identification appears unambiguous as sophisticated genetic techniques to identify chromosomes have determined that semen samples from twelve of the victims matched his own.

“No two people share the same DNA, which is why we were able to reach this person,” said Detective Jayne Doherty, head of this police command.

The other 19 cases were also linked to the same perpetrator, also known as “The Centennial Park Rapist” or “The Tracksuit Rapist”, by modus operandi.

This rapist usually assaulted women between the ages of 13 and 55 who played sports both in the famous Centennial Park, which is like a small forest in the eastern suburbs, and on the coastal paths between Bondi and Coogee beaches. In other cases, women were raped in their homes while they slept.

“I was so scared…it felt like it wasn’t happening, it was a nightmare,” recalled Jennifer, a nurse who wouldn’t give her last name and who was 33 when she was raped in a Randwick flat in 1987. as the newspaper published this week Sydney Morning Herald.

Although the victims present some inconsistencies in the descriptions of the attacker – such as the height which varied between 1.60 and 1.80 meters – all pointed out that he had dark complexion and wavy hair, as well as brown eyes and a broad nose.

“There were a lot of similarities: There were crimes committed in people’s homes in the middle of the night. And in almost every case where a home was broken into, it was under the same circumstances,” said Detective Shelley Johns . .

Shock in the family: he was an exemplary father and grandfather

Violations attributed to Simms, whose The family was shocked by the double life of what they believed was an exemplary father and grandfatherfirst got genetic clues in 2005 when five cases from the turn of the century in Randwick Cemetery, near Bondi, were linked to this man.

Subsequently, the Police created a special body to examine the evidence, a task which allowed the investigation to be extended to the 31 currently known cases.

Three years ago, forensic experts were able to narrow the number of suspects to 324 by Y-chromosome analysis of the evidence until they determined on Sept. 3 that Keith Simms was “the Beast of Bondi.”

With information from EFE.