New Jersey man arraigned for series of sexual assaults over 10 years ago

BOSTON (WLNE) — A New Jersey man whose DNA was linked to four different sexual assault cases from over a decade ago was arraigned on rape and kidnapping charges, District Attorney Kevin Hayden said Monday.

According to court documents, Matthew Nilo, 35, was charged with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping one count of assault with intent to rape and one count of indecent assault and battery.

Authorities said the assaults began in the early morning hours of August 18, 2007, when the victim, a 23-year-old woman was out with a friend in downtown Boston.

After leaving a bar, the victim, searching for her car parked on State Street was approached by a man in his twenties who offered her a ride. The victim accepted and was then taken to Terminal Street in Charlestown where the man threatened the victim’s life and assaulted her, officials said.

Court records said that victim got help from a passerby after the assailant left the scene and was treated at a nearby hospital.

The same documents said on November 22, 2007, another 23-year-old woman left a bar on State Street following a high school reunion. She entered a car she believed to be a taxi and gave the driver, identified as a man in his twenties, threatened her with a knife after deliberately driving past the woman’s address.

Officials said the man brought the second woman to the same area on Terminal Street and proceeded to sexually assault her. She was able to flag down a passing police cruiser who brought her to an area hospital to be treated for her injuries.

Court documents further reveal that on August 5, 2008 and on December 23, of the same year, two more victims were assaulted by a man matching the description given by previous victims. Police said their investigation of the Terminal Street assaults spanned through national DNA databases as they searched for a suspect.

In 2022, Boston police said Nilo became the focus of their investigation into the series of assaults after DNA placed him at the scene of the crimes on Terminal Street.

Later in 2023, the FBI said they were able to obtain piece of silverware and other items from Nilo that further confirmed his DNA matched that found at the scene of the multiple assaults.

Investigators said “The glove that [an] assault victim used to poke her attacker’s eyes was sent for forensic testing at a private lab and a [male] profile was obtained. Further testing determined that this profile was 314 times more likely to belong to Matthew Nilo than to any other male in the population.”

After his hearing, bail was set for Nilo at $500,000 and also ordered him to wear a GPS tracker if released, surrender his passport, have no contact with the victims and stay 1,000 feet away from Terminal Street unless accompanied by his attorney.

Nilo is expected to return to court for a bail review hearing next week.