Trial Starts for Mestizo Maintenance Man Who Raped Victims From Ages 10 to 65

11 Alive
January 29, 2014

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Daniel Wade posed as a maintenance man in order to rape his victims.

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of committing at least five rapes in the 1980s.

Daniel Wade, 63, is believed to be the Maintenance Man rapist, a nickname derived from the fact that he posed as a maintenance worker and attacked his victims in their apartments.

Police say Wade committed the rapes between January 1986 and January 1987. His victims ranged in age from 10 to 65. They were sexually assaulted in various apartment complexes along northeast Atlanta’s I-85 corridor.

The rapes went unsolved until April 2011, when police used DNA to link Wade to the five attacks, as well as three more in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. The suspect was indicted last September.

Wade faces a number of charges in Fulton County, including rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, aggravated assault, cruelty to children, burglary and robbery by intimidation.