Kidnap, rape fugitive with foul breath arrested near Danville

DANVILLE, Calif. - A fugitive who has been on the run for almost two decades was recently arrested in the East Bay.

U.S. Marshals had nicknamed Tuen Kit Lee the "Bad Breath Rapist." 

 His 15-year-old victim originally helped arrest him because she recognized his foul breath from the restaurant where she worked which his family owned.

Lee was taken into custody on Tuesday near Danville, where the marshals said he was seen leaving a multi-million dollar home with a woman. 

After his car was pulled over, Lee initially provided a false name but confessed when pressed about his true identity, authorities said. He was later identified via fingerprints.

Lee was found guilty at a 2007 trial of the kidnapping and rape of the young woman at knifepoint at her home in Quincy, south of Boston, the U.S. Marshals Service said. 

Investigators said Lee broke into the victim’s Massachusetts home on Feb. 2, 2005, and raped her.

"He was ultimately identified by DNA and his horrible breath, which produced the nickname "The Bad Breath Rapist," the state police statement said.

He went on the run before he was to be sentenced.

Officials kept the case alive in the media and Lee’s photo appeared several times on TV’s "America’s Most Wanted." After images surfaced on social media of a man believed to be Lee, investigators were able to track him to California’s Contra Costa County, the service said.

A jury still convicted him even after he fled.

He has never served time.

Investigators recently got a lead that he was living here in the Bay Area. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.