A Vancouver Police Department patch is seen on an officer's uniform after responding to an unknown incident in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver on January 9, 2021.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
August 30, 2023 - 9:00 PM
Vancouver police say they have solved a series of cold-case sexual assaults dating back 14 years, leading to the arrest of a suspect in Saskatchewan.
Arturo Garcia Gorjon, 45, has been linked to four "blitz-style" assaults in Vancouver from July 1, 2009, to Christmas Eve 2010, Deputy Chief Constable Fiona Wilson told a briefing on Wednesday.
She said Gorjon, who is believed to live in Vancouver but travels for work, went before a judge and has been released with conditions.
He was only identified as a suspect in the past six to 12 months, she said.
A "safety plan" is in place to monitor Gorjon's behaviour to make sure he abides by the conditions of his release, she said.
The investigation stretches back to the early hours of Canada Day in 2009, when a 20-year-old woman was sexually assaulted while walking near Granville Island by a stranger who fled before officers arrived, police said in a statement.
A 25-year-old woman was sexually assaulted while entering an apartment building in the city's West End in November that year, and a third woman was attacked in the Yaletown neighbourhood seven months after that, police said.
Initially, there was no evidence to conclusively link the three assaults, they said.
The break in the case came in January, when investigators linked the previous three attacks to the Christmas Eve assault in Vancouver's downtown core, Wilson said.
Those links led to Gorjon's arrest in Regina, she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2023.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2023