Man out on low bail after allegedly raping young stepdaughter has now murdered her, killed himself: Report
A Massachusetts man out on low bail after allegedly repeatedly raping his young stepdaughter has now apparently killed her and himself, police say.
On September 7, 2021, a young girl called police to report that her stepfather, Juliano Santana, had raped her on “multiple occasions,” said a press release from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, perhaps over the course of several years. The most recent assault had reportedly occurred just one month earlier.
‘Why was he out?’ one outraged resident demanded to know. ‘Why was he out?’
The victim told investigators that Santana had warned her “not to be scared and not to tell her mom.” Investigators also examined a diary in which the victim reportedly documented the attacks and shared them with her sister.
The same day that the girl lodged the accusations, officers arrested Santana, and prosecutors charged him with six counts of aggravated rape of a child. Despite the quick movement from law enforcement and the heinous accusations against Santana, the district court in Malden, Massachusetts, about five miles north of Boston, issued him bail of just $30,000, which Santana quickly paid.
As conditions of his release, the court ordered Santana to wear an ankle monitor and to have no contact with his stepdaughter. He was also forbidden to have unsupervised contact with anyone under age 18.
The girl’s mother, Olena Wilson, immediately secured a restraining order against Santana on behalf of her daughter and herself. “I also fear for my safety because I [realized] that I do not know this man and based on this situation I do not know what he is capable of,” Wilson wrote at the time.
Santana was originally scheduled to stand trial about a year later, but the case was issued one delay after another. Finally, it had been rescheduled for July 29, 2024. Unfortunately, neither the defendant nor the victim lived to see it.
Around 4 p.m. last Thursday, police in Acton, Massachusetts, received an alarming report that Santana, 49, had kidnapped his stepdaughter as she was walking home from school. Because of the ankle tether, his probation officer soon pinpointed Santana’s location in the parking lot outside his condo.
When cops arrived at the scene, they quickly located Santana’s vehicle. Inside, they found Santana and the girl both dead from apparent gunshot wounds to the head. The girl was just 16 years old at the time of her death, which means she was 12 or 13 the last time Santana allegedly raped her.
“Why was he out?” one outraged resident demanded to know. “Why was he out?”
The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, members of the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit, and Acton Police are continuing to investigate, the DA’s press release said.
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