Fugitive in Attleboro Rape Case Held Without Bail

ATTLEBORO — The 48-year-old suspect in a violent 1994 rape of a woman in Attleboro has been ordered held without bail after he was caught last month in New York City.

The Bristol County District Attorney's Office said Eduardo Mendez was arrested in Brooklyn, NY in November by U.S. Marshals and New York City authorities on a Bristol County arrest warrant issued in September 2020.

He was ordered held without bail at Fall River Superior Court on Monday.

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Authorities have been seeking Mendez since 2020, after his DNA matched that found in a previously untested rape kit, according to the D.A.'s office.

The D.A.'s office said the victim was walking near the Pleasant Street Bridge in Attleboro in June 1994 when three men forced her into the stairwell of a nearby building.

Two of the men held her down while the third man violently raped her, then all three fled the scene, according to the office.

Police were unable to identify any suspects in the case, although the victim said the man who raped her had gold on his teeth.

A rape kit was done at the time and the evidence was recently retested.

The D.A.'s office said the DNA profile from the test matched DNA from Eduardo Mendez on the CODIS system.

Mendez was in the system due to a conviction for a stabbing that took place later in the 1990s in New York.

Investigators say Mendez lived just a few houses away from the scene of the rape, and has gold in his teeth.

"I am very pleased that the defendant was held without bail as both a danger to the community and a flight risk," Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn said.

"This case was solved because our office helped identify a rape kit that was not tested and requested that the state lab expedite the testing, which they did thanks to a grant they had received," Quinn added.

"I am very happy for the victim that this 28-year-old cold case has been charged."