Cobb County

FBI says DNA links ‘violent sexual predator' to assaults in metro Atlanta

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A former corrections officer who police say sexually assaulted a woman in Sandy Springs is now in custody. Investigators say he's a serial rapist.

The sexual assaults go back more than 10 years.

Police told Channel 2 investigative reporter Wendy Halloran they believe there are more victims, who should no longer be afraid to come forward now that the suspect has been caught.

"I would say he's a violent sexual predator," Detective Will Johnson of the Sandy Springs Police Department said about Matthew Moore, 48.

Police said Moore met his victims on Craigslist and Backpage.com.

"The suspect in this case arranged a meeting with her on Craigslist," Deputy Chief Keith Zgonc with the Sandy Springs Police Department said.

Moore is charged with sexually assaulting a woman at the Hawthorn Suites in Sandy Springs in November 2015.

"In our case in 2010, he actually said he was a Cobb County police officer and that's how he gained entry into the apartment to sexually assault our victim," Sgt. Wayne Delk with the Cobb County Police Department said.

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On Feb. 6, 2010, police say he pretended he was a Cobb County police officer, used a gun and a badge to force his way into a woman’s apartment along Akers Mill Road, grabbed her hair and forced her to perform sex acts on him.

Police told Halloran that DNA links him to both assaults.

DNA collected from the crime scenes and DNA swabs taken from Moore after he was arrested link him to crimes in other states.

In 2008, police say Moore attacked a victim at an Econo Lodge in Homewood, Alabama. Police say he struck again two years later in 2010, at a Homestead Suites in Birmingham, Alabama.

The FBI said it has also connected Moore to a sexual assault in Jupiter, Florida this year.

“We're assisting the local police department with technical analysis,” FBI Special Agent Murang Pak said.

The FBI told Halloran that this could turn into a federal case because Moore crossed state lines.