Fugitive rape suspect was on a yacht in LA when police closed in

By Karen Anderson and Kevin Rothstein

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    LOS ANGELES (WCVB) — The beginning of the end nationwide manhunt for Massachusetts fugitive rape suspect Stephen Paul Gale happened at a marina in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles.

That’s where Gale was found, sources tell 5 Investigates, aboard a massive luxury boat named The Dior anchored at Seacoast Yachts when police closed in.

Police believe Gale suspected he was being watched when he got in his car on Aug. 8 and fled, taking police on an hour-and-a-half-long chase captured by news cameras that ended with his arrest outside the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

The nationwide hunt for Gale started last year after forensic genetic genealogy identified him as the man who raped two women working at a Hit or Miss retail store in Framingham in 1989. The Middlesex County District Attorney announced he was indicted on the rape and kidnapping charges in May.

The case reopened after a public plea from the two survivors for justice.

Gale’s past includes running afoul of the law decades ago in Los Angeles — one charge going back to 1984, when Gale stole more than $31,000 from another man. After several years on the run and a stint in federal prison on a different charge, he finally pled guilty to the 1984 LA theft in 1991. But there is no record in the courts of his ever appearing before another judge for sentencing, suggesting that case is still open.

Then, in a separate case, he was charged in Los Angeles in 1996 with forging checks worth about $15,000. That case also appears to be open.

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