File photo / Don Treeger, The Republican

Stewart Weldon at his June 4, 2018 arraignment in Springfield District Court.

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SPRINGFIELD -- Six months before investigators found three dead women at Stewart Weldon's home, Chicopee police had DNA evidence linking him to two reported rapes -- including one case from last year, according to documents obtained by The Republican.

But, Weldon wasn't arrested. He was never even questioned after police and an assistant district attorney received the rape kit analysis on Jan. 12.

Instead, according to the documents, Chicopee police determined the alleged crime happened in Springfield. They told the woman -- who said she had been tied up, raped repeatedly and beaten just 24 hours earlier -- to go to the Springfield department herself to report it, despite the fact that she didn't own a car.

She didn't go, according to police records. At least, not right away.

The investigation went nowhere until Weldon's name grabbed national headlines. In early June, the woman arrived at the Springfield Police Department to repeat the account she told Chicopee detectives in May 2017, sources told The Republican.

On May 27, 2018, Springfield police arrested Weldon on kidnapping charges in an unrelated case involving his girlfriend. Three days later, investigators recovered the bodies of three other women in and around his home at 1333 Page Blvd.

While not charged in connection with their deaths, Weldon was subsequently charged with kidnapping and attempted rape in a second case and remains in county jail, held on $2 million bail. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

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File photo / Melissa Hanson, MassLive

Sexual assault evidence collection kits, known colloquially as rape kits, are distributed by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and administered by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, known as SANEs, who receive universal training specific to forensic exams. The training is designed to ensure each victim will receive the same care after an assault.

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A spokesman for the Chicopee Police Department said detectives there did report the DNA identification to Springfield police, and argues they were rebuffed when investigators in this city said the victim never made a report.

Springfield police, though, deny they were ever informed of the rape allegation or the DNA match. The Republican has a request pending for documentation confirming when and if the exchange occurred between Chicopee and Springfield police officials.

Chicopee police spokesman Michael Wilk conceded there was potentially room for improvement in the way Officer Brian LePage, a detective in the Chicopee department, attempted to hand the case off to Springfield.

"It's kind of a tough call. I can't speak for (LePage) ... I don't know what her demeanor was at the time of the interview. The report doesn't say. It's possible everyone was extremely comfortable that she would go right away" to the Springfield department, Wilk said. "But if she was that distraught or in that ... wrecked of a state of mind, I would think it would be handled differently."

The report from the state police crime lab was addressed to Chicopee Police Lt. Holly Davis. Also copied on the report was Hampden Assistant District Attorney Jane Mulqueen, who is now a Superior Court Judge.

Hampden district attorney's office spokesman James Leydon said the office typically fields DNA hits and cross-checks them with open cases across the county. A criminal complaint relative to Weldon's alleged victim had not been presented for consideration to the district attorney's office as of Jan. 12, he added.

"I can't speak for the Chicopee Police Department," Leydon said.

The same report also flags Weldon as a match for an unsolved 2009 rape reported in Springfield. City police have said the alleged victim in that case left town shortly after she made the complaint and never resurfaced. Efforts to find the woman in two cities were unsuccessful, sources said.

Springfield police -- apparently unaware of the May 2017 rape accusation -- did go to Weldon's home on Feb. 21, nine days after Weldon allegedly cut off the GPS device. Court records say Weldon escaped as officers tried to serve a warrant.

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File photo / MassLive

The 1333 Page Blvd. home where Stewart Weldon lived with his mother. In a May 2017 police report, a woman describes being taken to a green home with flowers out front -- where a man allegedly raped her in the basement.

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The entire scenario raises questions about a porous criminal justice system, particularly given Weldon's extensive criminal record prior to his arrest in May. The DNA report sat idly with at least two law enforcement agencies as Weldon allegedly committed more crimes and attacked more women, according to court records.

The DNA evidence came back a month before Weldon, out on bail after an Oct. 14 arrest, allegedly cut off a court-ordered GPS device that reported his movements to the state's probation department.

At least one of the women found dead on Weldon's property was seen alive about two months after Chicopee police received the rape kit results.

And, when his mugshot first appeared in news reports following his May arrest, another woman went to Springfield police within hours. She told them Weldon was the man who plucked her off Main Street on Feb. 1 in the city's South End and tried to drag her into the Page Boulevard home. That alleged attack occurred three weeks after the crime lab report came in.

That woman's story echoed the account Chicopee police heard a year earlier, according to the report. Clinicians at Baystate Medical Center called to report they were treating a victim of an apparent sexual assault who believed she was raped in Chicopee, records state.

On May 21, 2017, the 43-year-old woman told detectives a man picked her up on Worthington Street in Springfield, according to the Chicopee police report.

"A guy pulled up in a black color car asking her for a date," the report reads. "She got in the car and they drove to a package store where they got some alcohol. While driving in his car he made her put his shirt over her eyes so she couldn't see where she was going."

The report continues: "She doesn't know where the house was located but described it to be a green color ranch with flowers in the front yard and being a nice neighborhood. She thinks it was Chicopee cause (sic) when he brought her home this morning he took the shirt off her head and they were turning on Page Blvd and the corner where O'Brein's (sic) Corner is."

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"Since the creation of CODIS [Combined #DNA Index System], we have aided over 152,000 investigations....The potential to solve more crimes continues to increase." — National DNA Index System Program Manager, #FBI Laboratory https://t.co/Vyev4O7Aza pic.twitter.com/KVAtIt7sjz — FBIJobs (@FBIJobs) December 7, 2017

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The green house the alleged victim described bears an uncanny resemblance to the bungalow-style home on Page Boulevard that became ground zero for the investigation in June. Weldon's mother -- who lived there with her son, his daughter and the child's mother -- called 911 after Weldon was arrested to report a rancid smell in the house. Police arrived and made grisly discovery after discovery, officials reported publicly.

During the high-profile investigation at the property, police found the bodies of Kayla Escalante, 27, of Ludlow, and Springfield residents Ernestine Ryans, 47, and America Canales Lyden, 34. The state medical examiner's office has not released autopsy reports on when or how the women died.

Family members reported Canales Lyden missing on Dec. 1, telling police they hadn't seen her since the summer.

A roommate reported Ryans missing March 18, telling police she hadn't been seen for 10 days when she left their Worthington Street apartment.

Escalante was estranged from her family and was never reported missing. Her last social media posts appeared in late November.

Investigators and witnesses interviewed by The Republican have said Weldon was a drug user who preyed on other, more vulnerable drug addicts. Family members and friends of the three women suggested they, too, struggled with substance abuse and spent time in the same city neighborhoods where Weldon was known to score drugs.

Shortly after the case made national headlines, still other women came forward to report Weldon had attacked them. Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni signalled more charges will be brought against Weldon, but those have yet to come.

The woman who made the report to Chicopee police said she and Weldon did drugs at the green house after her shift at a local strip club.

"There they smoked crack and he became crazy. He brought her down in the basement where he tied her up and put duct tape over her mouth. He then raped her several times throughout the night. She said she heard a woman's voice and there was also a little girl around a few months old that she had seen before he brought her down to the basement. He then drove her home in the morning," the Chicopee police report states.

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Hoang Leon Nguyen / The Republican

Detective Brian Lepage of the Chicopee Police Department at a city block party on August 25, 2017.

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The woman spoke with LePage and Lt. Mark Higgins, according to the report, which was approved by Sgt. Christopher Lareau.

During a follow-up interview the next day, LePage said he and another detective picked the victim up at her home in Springfield and drove her around, trying to find the scene of the alleged crime.

"We checked several neighborhoods that are located in Springfield but were unable to locate the house. We determined the crime accord (sic) in Springfield," the report said.

"I told (the victim) that she was going to have to report it to (Springfield Police). I told her to have the Springfield detective contact me if he has any questions. Det. Liszka and I dropped (the victim) off at her house," it continues. "The case is close (sic) due to it happened in Springfield."

The last note in LePage's report reads:

"I received a DNA profile back from State Police Crime Laboratory from the following individual Stewart Weldon dob 6/24/77."

Springfield Police Capt. Trent Duda, lead detective on the Weldon case, had no comment on the ongoing investigation.

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