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Convicted rapist found after 34 years: fugitive was hiding in Maine

A rapist who fled Massachusetts before sentencing years 34 ago has been found living in Gorham, Maine. 

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Cumberland County Sheriff's Office / AP
The sheriff's office of Cumberland County, Maine, released this undated picture of Gary Irving, who was convicted of rape in Massachusetts 34 years ago and who has been on the run ever since, living under the name Gregg Irving. He was arrested Wednesday evening.
  • By Clarke Canfield Associated Press

| GORHAM, Maine

A Massachusetts man who disappeared while awaiting sentencing for three rapes 35 years ago has been arrested in Maine, where he'd married and started a family while living under an assumed name outside Portland, police said Thursday.

Gary Allen Irving, who worked installing telephones in businesses, was living in Gorham using the name Gregg Irving when he was arrested Wednesday night by Massachusetts and Maine State Police, Gorham police and the FBI.

"He was surprised to find law enforcement on his front door," Maine State Police Sgt. Robert Burke said Thursday. Maine police didn't say what led authorities to Irving.

Irving, 52, was due to appear in court Friday on charges of being fugitive from justice and being a felon in possession of firearms.

Irving has been on the Massachusetts Top 10 Most Wanted list for decades. He'd fled in 1978 while awaiting sentencing for three rapes in Norfolk County that carried the potential for life imprisonment, according to Massachusetts State Police.

In one of the rapes, he knocked the victim off of her bike, dragged her to a secluded area and raped her repeatedly; in another, he forced the victim into his car and threatened her with a knife, police said.

In Gorham, Irving and his wife had no encounters with police other than 2006 when the wife was a victim of identity theft.

"They certainly blended into the community," said Gorham Police Lt. Christopher Sanborn.

The couple have an adult son and daughter who are in their 20s, as well as a granddaughter, said a neighbor, Leroy Dixon, who knew Irving by his middle name, Al. Irving had lived in the home for decades, Dixon said

"As far as I can see, he lived an ordinary life in a middle-class suburb," Dixon said.

Police said the couple were watching TV and that a 3-year-old girl was inside the home when police arrived to make the arrest Wednesday night.

Nobody answered the door Thursday at their blue clapboard house, which police said was listed in the wife's name. A minivan, sedan and pickup were parked in the dirt driveway front of a detached garage. A swing set and camper were in the backyard.

Now that Maine authorities know Irving's identity, they'll be looking at unsolved rapes to see if he may have been involved, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Irving was held without bail Thursday at Cumberland County Jail. The jail had no information as to whether he'd hired an attorney.

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