An attorney charged in a series of sexual assaults and kidnappings in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood in 2007 and 2008 has been suspended by the company where was hired earlier this year.
Matthew Nilo, who is due in a New Jersey court Thursday morning for an extradition hearing, was "suspended pending further investigation" by his employer, the cyber-insurance company Cowbell said in a statement Wednesday, a day after Nilo was arrested at his Weehawken apartment building across the Hudson River from Manhattan.
The 35-year-old was taken into custody at a waterfront apartment building on Harbor Boulevard by FBI agents and police, according to the warrant filed in court. The law enforcement agents had the front desk of his building call Nilo and say he had a package delivered that was too large to hold in the lobby, and he was arrested when he came down to pick up it up.
Nilo was hired in January after passing a background check, according to Cowbell.
He faces charges of aggravated rape, kidnapping, assault with intent to rape and indecent assault and battery in Boston, officials said Tuesday in announcing his arrest over attacks in the area of Terminal Street, which runs through an industrial part of Charlestown under the Tobin Bridge, on Aug. 18, 2007; Nov. 22, 2007; Aug. 5, 2008; and Dec. 23, 2008. Nilo was identified using investigative forensic genealogy, which linked his DNA to the cases.
Nilo's arrest highlights the increased use of forensic genetic genealogy by investigators.
"This really jumps us several generations ahead in terms of what we are able to do with DNA we might recover," said Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan, who has been one of the leaders in using this new technology.
