ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — A man described as a serial rapist following allegations he raped a woman in Cherry Hills Village and a college student in Hays, Kansas and also tried to kidnap a woman in Aurora has been arrested, Contact7 Investigates has learned.
Tre Miekale Carrasco, 24, had been released from prison in Kansas before he was arrested by Aurora Police on Feb. 12, officials said. He had served time for a parole violation after serving a 100-month sentence for a sexual assault conviction in 2011. He was initially charged with rape, but in a 2011 plea bargain, agreed to the sentence in exchange for pleading guilty to sexual assault, Ellis County, Kansas county attorney Tom Drees told Contact7.
Kansas Department of Corrections online records indicate Carrasco was released Feb. 1.
Two days later, Carrasco is accused of raping a Fort Hays State University student. The woman is 19 years old and lived off campus in Hays, Kansas.
Drees said the woman met Carrasco with a group of people at a bar. Carrasco was with another man who was released from prison on the same day. The group went back to the victim’s apartment for a house party, Drees said.
The group of people left but Carrasco later returned and convinced the victim to come out of her apartment, saying he needed help finding lost keys, Drees said.
Court documents from Ellis County, Kansas allege that Carrasco raped the woman and “held a gun to the head/neck of the victim and told her if she did not stop crying he would kill her.”
Aurora attempted kidnapping
Four days later, a woman says she was carjacked and the suspect attempted to kidnap her in Aurora. The Feb. 7 incident happened outside the 24 Hour Fitness on Abilene Street, Aurora Police spokeswoman Crystal McCoy said.
The suspect, later determined to be Carrasco, stole the woman’s car and took off, court records show. Police did not immediately find the car or Carrasco.
Law enforcement believes Carrasco was trying to kidnap the victim to sexually assault her, based on his past and future alleged activity, a source told Denver7.
“It was terrifying,” the victim, who asked not to be identified, told Denver7 Monday. The woman said she was about to close her driver’s side door after leaving the gym when a man grabbed the door and stopped it from closing.
“He said, ‘Scoot over or I’ll kill you,’” the woman said. “I was begging him to get out.”
The victim was able to open the passenger’s side door and escape.
Carrasco was on the run for several days.
Cherry Hills rape
Cherry Hills Village Police said a man pretended to be a utility worker to get into a home on Feb. 12 and then sexually assaulted a woman. The incident occurred at 11:45 a.m., Cherry Hills Chief of Police Michelle Tovrea said.
“After the male forced his way into the house and he made her go up a flight of stairs and into the master bedroom while threatening her with a knife…” court records reviewed by Contact7 show. The suspect threatened he would kill her, records allege. He then raped her.
Police did not identify Carrasco as a suspect in the rape for several days.
About five hours after the rape occurred on Feb. 12, Aurora police discovered the stolen car from the incident at the gym in Aurora and arrested Carrasco at East Colfax Avenue and North Adams Street.
Criminal charges
The district attorney in Arapahoe County has charged Carrasco with attempted kidnapping, robbery, motor vehicle theft, trespassing and driving without a driver’s license in connection with the carjacking in Aurora.
Carrasco was later identified as the rape suspect in the Cherry Hills Village incident.
The DA charged Carrasco with sexual assault, kidnapping, assault, robbery, unlawful sexual contact and using a weapon in a violent crime in connection to that crime.
Carrasco was scheduled to make his first appearance in court Monday and is expected to be back in court Tuesday.
Ellis County, Kansas county attorney Tom Drees said it is likely that the Colorado case will progress through the court system before Carrasco returns to Kansas.
The victim from the carjacking said she learned a week later that the suspect in her case was an accused rapist.
“That’s what has haunted me the most,” the carjacking victim said. “It’s heartbreaking to hear what happened next.”
