For over fifteen years, sickos in the DC area media have been referring to a man wanted for multiple home invasion rapes, now facing life in prison, as 'Cuddler'.

VIRGINIA: "An Arlington, Virginia, man was arrested at his home Tuesday night and charged in connection with a string of sexual assaults that occurred in the D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown in the late 2000s, authorities said Wednesday. Ernesto Ramon Mercado, 54, has been charged with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse and five counts of second-degree sexual abuse, with aggravating circumstances on all counts, after being forensically linked to five home invasion rapes that occurred in the Georgetown area between 2008 and 2012. Mercado has also been linked to a sixth sexual assault in College Park, Maryland, just off the University of Maryland campus.

At the time of the sexual assaults, the then-unknown offender had been dubbed the “Georgetown-College Park Cuddler Rapist.” The five sexual assaults in D.C. took place between June 26, 2008 and Aug. 31, 2012.

“In the media reports at the time, this suspect was labeled as both the ‘College Park Cuddler’ and the ‘Georgetown Cuddler.’ Over the years, this term has only caused more harm to our victims. This man is a predator, and his intent was not to cuddle these women, but instead, his intent was to rape them, and it was only when they would wake up that the assault would end and he would flee,” said Detective Alexander Mac Bean, with the sexual assault cold case unit in the Criminal Investigations Division of D.C. police."

https://wtop.com/dc/2024/10/arlington-man-charged-in-series-of-dc-home-invasion-rapes-from-the-late-2000s/