PHOENIX — Phoenix police say a suspect has been arrested on multiple sexual assault and kidnapping charges after a series of attacks between 1994 and 2013 in Arizona and California.
According to police documents, in July 1998, a 17-year-old victim said she was assaulted near 75th Avenue and Thomas Road after accepting a ride from a man while she was walking home.
The victim was reportedly punched repeatedly before being sexually assaulted. The suspect is said to have dropped the victim off near her home after the attack.
In January 1999, an 18-year-old reported to police that she was sexually assaulted near Dysart Road and Van Buren Street in Avondale.
In that case, police say the victim reported she was approached from behind, threatened with a handgun, and forced into a vehicle. The victim said she was struck in the face when she refused to undress before she was sexually assaulted.
In April 2013, a 17-year-old girl said she was offered a ride near 67th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road. The suspect reportedly punched the victim in the face and stomach before sexually assaulting her and dropping her off in another location.
In May 2013, a 20-year-old woman accepted a ride from a man near 27th and Missouri avenues. Police documents say the woman was hit in the face and fondled before being sexually assaulted.
Investigators collected evidence from all four victims, and all samples matched one unknown person, documents show.
At the end of July 2025, Phoenix police were notified that a national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database had located a match between a suspect from a 1994 Ventura County, California, sexual assault case and the local cases. The suspect was identified as 54-year-old Abraham Ramirez.
Officials say the match was only recently determined because Ventura County began processing unsubmitted or untested sexual assault kits through county attorney grants. The DNA profile from Ventura County’s 1994 case was entered into the national database just weeks ago, police documents show.
Phoenix police say in 1994, "Ramirez was arrested in California, but never convicted, for a kidnapping and sexual assault." Officials say, "at the time, DNA was still a fairly new forensic tool and there was no mandate to process the DNA or enter it into a national database."
After learning of the match, officials located Ramirez coming out of a Phoenix apartment, near 51st and Northern avenues, and a storage facility near 19th and Peoria avenues, on August 4.
Police say Ramirez was taken into custody, denied knowing any of the victims, and refused a DNA test.
Ramirez was booked into a Maricopa County jail on multiple charges of sexual assault and kidnapping.
"Throughout the years, Phoenix detectives and the forensic scientists at the Phoenix Police Crime Lab never stopped working these cases," Phoenix police officials said about the cases. "A composite sketch of a suspect was developed and widely circulated, and forensic scientists used new technology like genetic genealogy and familial DNA testing trying to identify a suspect. Investigators were working on these cases as recently as last month in a continued attempt to bring justice to the victims."
On Thursday, ABC15 also reported on a DNA match that led to an arrest in a 2009 kidnapping and sexual assault case. The two arrests are not believed to be connected.
