Angelo Alleano Jr. was arrested on May 27, 2020 and charged with four home invasion rapes in Manchester, Connecticut that took place between 2001 and 2008. Alleano was 47 years old at the time of his arrest. He had worked a firefighter for 24 years in Manchester, and was the union president.
Prosecutors had obtained a ‘John Doe Warrant’ in 2010 to stop the statute of limitations from running. Police had also obtained an FBI profile from the FBI Violent Crime Behavioral Analysis Unit in 2008. The FBI profile indicated that the suspect was white or Hispanic, of medium build, and about 28 years old at the time of the first attack in 2001, all of which appears to have been correct. The FBI profile also indicated that the offender might be a police officer or a firefighter, because of his familiarity with the town’s streets, and recommended taking their DNA samples, but this suggestion appears to have been dismissed by investigators. It is partly due to cases such as this one that this project has included data on whether the suspect is a member of police or security forces: this may shield suspects from suspicion, while facilitating certain kinds of crimes, such as home invasion rapes.
There is no information on who conducted the FGG investigation in this case, but it was funded by a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and its Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). These grants are intended to assist investigators with the testing of sexual assault kits and the closure of sexual assault cases.
Most of the male relatives in the neighborhood voluntarily submitted their DNA samples to the police, but there is no public estimate of how many individuals this included.
Alleano pled guilty to all charges. Alleano was convicted of four counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment followed by 10 years of special parole. Alleano will also be required to register as a sexual offender with the Connecticut Sex Offender Registry. Only one of the victims is still alive.
In December of 2022, Drew Jacob McFarland, 22, was sentenced to six months in jail followed by 15 months probation for child luring. He stated that he had a lifetime of psychological problems beginning when he was six years old and Alleano broke into his home and sexually assaulted his mother. The Judge agreed that post-traumatic stress disorder from this incident might be at the root of his offending. His father left when he was young, and his mother passed away from brain cancer when he was 15 years old. He would go on to be sexually abused by an older man at this time in his life.
Sources:
Connecticut Courts. “Case Detail for Alleano, Angelo, Docket No. TTD -CR20-0737864-0.” Connecticut: Judicial Branch. https://www.jud2.ct.gov/crdockets/CaseDetail.aspx?source=Pending&Key=2ac549a8-c3ad-4884-9ff9-06cd6ed4b97b.
Hardaway, Liz. “CT Man Pleads Guilty to Sexually Assaulting Women in Manchester, Vernon, Tolland State’s Attorney Says.” CTPost, June 24, 2022. Accessed January 12, 2023. https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/CT-man-pleads-guilty-to-sexually-assaulting-women-17264645.php.
Leavenworth, Jesse. “CT Firefighter Charged in Cold Case Sexual Assaults.” Firehouse, and Hartford Courant, May 28, 2020. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.firehouse.com/careers-education/news/21140124/ct-firefighter-charged-in-cold-case-sexual-assaults.
Leavenworth, Jesse. “Former Manchester Firefighter Fired After Rape Arrest Can Still Collect $28K Annual Pension.” Hartford Courant, June 11, 2020. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-news-manchester-fired-firefighter-20200611-vxpa77a7nretjdwavtjnzhxvxy-story.html.
NBC News. “Genealogy Service Leads to Arrest of Firefighter Charged in Sex Assaults in Vernon, Manchester.” NBC News Connecticut, May 28, 2020, last modified May 29, 2020. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/police-in-vernon-manchester-to-make-announcement-on-arrest-in-cold-cases/2278461/.
Office of the State’s Attorney Judicial District of Tolland. “Vernon Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multiple Sexual Assaults.” Connecticut State Division of Criminal Justice, September 2, 2022. Accessed January 12, 2023. https://portal.ct.gov/DCJ/Press-Room/Press-Releases/09022022Alleano.
Wood, Alex. “Prosecutor: At Least One Rape Victim May Have Died.” Journal Inquirer, May 30, 2020, last modified June 10, 2020. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://www.journalinquirer.com/crime_and_courts/prosecutor-at-least-one-rape-victim-may-have-died/article_3144a718-a214-11ea-ab91-3369922416c0.html.
Wood, Alex. “Man with Psychiatric History Gets 6 Months for Enticing Teen.” Journal Enquirer, December 10, 2022. Accessed May 27, 2023. https://www.journalinquirer.com/crime_and_courts/man-with-psychiatric-history-gets-6-months-for-enticing-teen/article_2bb4d62a-7821-11ed-9499-b7f038f916b5.html.