Boston serial rape suspect Matthew Nilo hid dark secrets in double life as fiance, attorney: expert

A New Jersey-based lawyer recently accusing of sexually assaulting or raping at least eight women in the Boston area between 2007 and 2008 appeared to be living a double life for years after the alleged attacks.

FBI Boston Special Agent In Charge Joe Bonavolonta said in May that Nilo’s arrest was “the direct result of the FBI’s use of investigative genetic genealogy,” which he described as “a unique method used to generate new leads in unsolved sex assaults, homicides and other violent crimes.”

After more than 16 years, authorities were able to link Nilo’s DNA to DNA found at the various crime scenes in Boston and Charlestown, where Nilo is accused of assaulting eight women between 2007 and 2008.

“The double life comes with the territory,” forensic psychologist Kris Mohandie told Fox News Digital of the possibility that Nilo may have continued about his life normally after allegedly assaulting various women when he was 19 or 20 years old. “This new [DNA] technology has unlocked the door to identifying suspects that otherwise would not have been identified.”

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In the years after 2008, Nilo went on to get his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and worked two years as a paralegal before moving on to the University of San Francisco School of Law. From there, Nilo worked at the Clyde & Co. law firm in San Francisco, Atheria Law in New York City and finally at Cowbell Cyber in New York, according to his LinkedIn page.

The suspect apparently got engaged just weeks before his arrest, according to his social media.

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Keeping in mind that Nilo is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, Mohandie said the idea of a criminal suspect leading a double life is common.

“They could be a police officer, they could be a pastor in a church, they could be a teacher, they could be a homeless person. They could be all walks of life,” Mohandie said. “But the core of it is that they are living a double life because they’re concealing this offending, and they are engaging in it.”

“[W]hen push comes to shove … these urges, they don’t go away.”

The forensic psychologist added that when the urge to re-offend becomes stronger, and the opportunity to re-offend presents itself, criminals might preplan illegal activity.

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“There’s a presumption that on the surface of a person who seems live a lifestyle of employment, of advanced education, that somehow that is incompatible with continued offending. And we don’t know that to be the case,” he said. “If, indeed, this is a person that is ultimately found criminally responsible … we don’t know that there aren’t other victims, which is why they are looking every place that he’s ever been or visited to see if there’s any other cases that fit similar patterns.”

Serial offenders, he said, tend to “keep offending until they get caught,” even if they have “cooling periods” in between offenses, either because they think authorities are on their trail or because they might simply be busy with “other relationships that are preoccupying them.”

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“But when push comes to shove … these urges, they don’t go away,” Mohandie said.

Nilo was initially 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. 

On Tuesday, a Suffolk County, Massachusetts grand jury indicted Nilo on seven additional charges, including one count of rape, one count of aggravated rape, three counts of assault with intent to rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery.

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“Mr. Nilo denies all the allegations including the latest charges,” his attorney, Joseph Cataldo, told Fox News Digital. “You can expect both a legal and factual challenge to the government’s case.”

Nilo was fitted for a GPS monitor and released on $500,000 bail from the Suffolk County Jail on June 15 following his arraignment and a bail hearing. The suspect’s next court appearance in Suffolk County is scheduled for July 13.

One of his accusers, Lori Pinkham, told reporters on June 15 before his release that she feared Nilo could be a danger to the community if he is allowed out on bail.

Pinkham, who said she was working as a bar manager in Cambridge at the time of the 2007 attack, alleged that Nilo forced her into a vehicle at gunpoint near Government Center in downtown Boston. 

Cataldo questioned what he describes as “the suspicious nature in which the DNA was recovered, but we’ll get to that in due course” in comments to reporters at the Suffolk County Superior Court on June 15.

Fox News’ Ashley Papa contributed to this report.