Rape suspect charged
in recent assaults
By jennifer kohlhepp
Staff Writer
Fingerprints have linked a New Brunswick man to the rape of an 81-year-old woman and recent criminal activity in North Brunswick.
Police arrested Nelson Abarca, 28, Aug. 4 after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in his home at 138 Townsend St.
"Later we learned that the fingerprints submitted in connection with the [Aug. 4 incident] were a definite match to those found in connection with different day entries or attempted entries into homes in North Brunswick," according to Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Carter.
Carter said there is other corroborating evidence that links Abarca to various crimes that the Prosecutor’s Office "is not at liberty to discuss."
Police booked Abarca on a total of 11 charges, including aggravated sexual assault, burglary, theft, attempted burglary, attempted aggravated sexual assault, and criminal restraint in connection with the entry of six homes in North Brunswick between June 29 and Aug. 1, according to Carter.
The Prosecutor’s Office will recommend $500,000 bail on the new charges, according to Carter.
Abarca has been incarcerated at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, on $150,000 bail since his arrest Aug. 4, according to Carter.
In the New Brunswick incident, authorities believe Abarca met the 14-year-old girl at Feaster Park in New Brunswick and forced her to drink alcohol, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. He then took her back to his residence where he forced her to drink more alcohol and raped her, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Although the girl was allowed to leave and was threatened not to report the incident, she went home and told her mother, authorities said.
Carter credits the cooperative efforts of the girl, her mother, members of the North Brunswick and New Brunswick police departments, and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes/Child Abuse Unit with the arrest of Abarca.
Carter said the Prosecutor’s Office is pleased with all of the efforts of the departments that took part in the investigation which led to the arrest.
She said the Prosecutor’s Office is not ready to rule out the possibility that Abarca is connected with the sexual assaults of four New Brunswick women that have occurred since 2001.
All of the incidents in North Brunswick took place within a half-mile radius of each other, off Livingston Avenue near the New Brunswick border, according to information from the prosecutor’s office.
Abarca is a suspect in the rape of an 81-year-old woman in her bedroom at 2 a.m. June 29. Entry to the Remsen Avenue apartment was gained by cutting a window screen. The suspect reportedly stole $6 from the woman’s wallet before fleeing the scene, according to police.
In another incident, a 77-year-old resident allegedly found Abarca in her residence at 9 a.m. July 12. The suspect fled the scene, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Police said Abarca’s fingerprints were lifted from the kitchen window of an apartment on Cypress Avenue July 18 after an elderly couple alerted police to an attempted break-in.
Officials said Abarca is believed to have gained entry to another home between 1 and 9 a.m. July 24.
He is also a suspect in the attempted sexual assault of a 66-year-old woman in the kitchen of her home on 13th Street, North Brunswick, at 8:30 p.m. on July 31, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Police said the attacker in that incident struck the woman with an open fist, knocking her to the ground, before trying to pull off her undergarments.
The assailant fled the scene when the victim’s brother unexpectedly arrived at the residence.
Police also have linked Abarca to an Aug. 1 incident in North Brunswick, in which someone attempted to gain entry to another home through a garage door.