Police say an Indiana man who confessed to stalking "thousands of women" spent a dozen years tracing one woman to suburban Detroit, after she eluded him in 2004 when she moved to Michigan from their small town near Indianapolis.

The suspect finally was tripped up when he resumed stalking her in December, making a threatening call in December that led investigators to the small frame house where he lived with his mother, Royal Oak police said.

Steven Craig Mason, 42, of Anderson, Indiana, was arraigned Tuesday in Royal Oak's 44th District Court, following a lengthy investigation and his extradition from Indiana to appear before District Judge Jamie Wittenberg, Royal Oak Police said.

Mason is charged with one count of aggravated stalking, a felony that carries up to five years in prison. He was being held in the Oakland County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond.

Mason had been living with his mother, who "indicated she was terrified of her son and fully cooperated with investigators," Royal Oak Police Chief Corrigan O'Donohue said.

“Royal Oak detectives did an outstanding job with this case. This victim and potentially many others have been living in a state of constant fear. We are glad, after all these years, to give this young woman some peace," O’Donohue said. Police did not identify the woman because of concern for her safety, he said.

Until now, the most serious charge in Mason’s criminal history was a conviction in Indiana for driving while intoxicated, police said. In Royal Oak, the case began in December, when the victim — a city resident — contacted police "to report that an unknown man called her cellphone and made threats to find her and sexually assault her," according to a news release from Royal Oak Police.

Although the call came from a blocked number, the Royal Oak resident "recognized the voice of the man as the same unknown person who stalked her several years ago when she lived in Indiana," where she'd received similar calls from 2001 to 2004, the release said.

During that period, neighbors in Anderson told the woman they'd seen a man parked at various times in different vehicles outside her apartment complex, but local police were unable to identify the suspect, the release said.

His threatening calls continued when the woman relocated to Michigan in 2004, then stopped for more than a decade after she concealed her identity, but resumed again with a call in December, police said. During that recent call, the suspect told the woman he'd spent years tracing her to Royal Oak, police said.

After the woman went to Royal Oak Police, "detectives were able to track the suspect to a home in Anderson, Indiana, (then) contacted the Anderson Police Department and coordinated the investigation which led to obtaining a search warrant for the suspect’s Indiana home," police said. At that point, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized Mason's computer and Tuesday's charge followed, police said.

Investigators now are combing Mason's computer files "to try to identify other potential victims," according to the Royal Oak news release.

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Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com