Most people knew him as Ricardo and his friends called him "Chaparro," or "Shorty."
But the approximately 5-foot-4 construction worker who called himself Ricardo López, who was known among relatives and close friends as a loving husband and father who would give you "the shirt off his back," is actually Santana Batiz Aceves and is the "Chandler Rapist," police say.
"We are convinced that this suspect . . . is responsible for the multiple assaults that have been committed in our community," Chandler Police Chief Sherry Kiyler said during a press conference Saturday.
Police arrested Batiz Aceves on Friday morning and discovered in less than 24 hours from DNA test results that he is a match for a serial rapist who has been stalking and raping young girls in Chandler for nearly two years, police announced Saturday.
Batiz Aceves, 39, originally from a town in Sinaloa, Mexico, began living in the United States illegally in 1988 and lived in Sacramento for nearly 16 years, where he worked for a construction company, computer records show.
"He always took care of his kids, he's very respectful and he's a good person," said Maria Peñuelos, Batiz Aceves' ex-girlfriend and neighbor. "I just don't believe it."
Peñuelos, who knew him as "Ricardo," said in her year and a half relationship with Batiz Aceves that he took care of her children and drove her daughter to school even after they broke up. He has a 15-year-old daughter who still lives in California and took care of her, she said.
But police confirmed Saturday that Batiz Aceves is facing 25 felony counts, including aggravated assault, kidnapping, child molestation, burglary and sexual abuse of a minor.
Police believe he is an undocumented immigrant who was deported in 1999 and 2003 on drug offenses.
Detectives searched for the Chandler Rapist for more than 18 months after six separate attacks in the city, four of which were rapes, all on young girls.
Authorities said Batiz Aceves worked as a heavy-equipment operator and lived in the area of the sexual assaults for the past 18 months.
It was not immediately known if Batiz Aceves had legal representation yet, but he appeared in khaki pants and a denim-colored button-up shirt before a judge Saturday night and only recited his name as "Ricardo Ramirez López."
He sat in a jailhouse courtroom with his legs and arms crossed looking down at the floor and wiping away a few tears.
Kiyler said detectives working a saturation patrol Friday morning in the area of the most recent assault spotted a man who matched the description of the rapist and who was driving a white, two-door car that also matched a police description.
Police canvassing after the last reported attack on the same street received a tip about the car.
Police said Batiz Aceves initially provided officers an alias of Ricardo López.
Inside the vehicle they found a jacket similar to one they believed the rapist had worn, Kiyler said.
Aceves told officers he lived in Casa Grande and was just visiting Chandler. He refused to submit to a DNA test.
"I think (the tip) piqued our interest more so than all the other (tips)," said Sgt. Rick Griner, a Chandler police spokesman. "I didn't believe it but it was definitely good news."
Through a search warrant, detectives obtained a buccal swab for DNA from Aceves and, in less than 24 hours, they confirmed Aceves matched physical evidence obtained from Chandler Rapist crime scenes, police said.
It took almost five hours for officers to make the arrest once they made contact with Aceves.
Aceves was preparing to flee as officers arrived at his Chandler residence near Arizona Avenue and Ray Road to arrest him, officers said.
Nationally known forensic psychiatrist Steven Pitt, who is based out of Scottsdale, said it's usually shocking for the public and friends to find out the person they knew could be a violent serial offender.
"I think that the public is always surprised when a serial offender is taken off the streets because they expect a monsterlike character to be viewed in the perp walk, when you see someone who looks like you or me," Pitt said.
Neighbor Joe Ortega, 55, had barbeques with Aceves, chatted with his family on the patio of their adjacent homes in central Chandler at night.
"I've got kids and I've got grandkids and if someone did that to my kids, I'd want to kill them," Ortega said. "It just blows my mind."
The Chandler Rapist has struck six times, beginning in June 2006.
Three of the six confirmed attacks have been on Andersen Junior High School students, police said.
In all of the attacks, he entered the homes without forcing his way in.
In all but one of the previous cases, police believe the rapist stalked the victims for weeks, targeting single-parent homes where the parent leaves early in the morning for work.
The man studies the parent's routine, develops a quick escape route and then strikes, police said.
Police also are looking into unsolved rapes in northern California. In recent years, the "Nor-Cal Rapist" has terrorized Sacramento, but the MO of the offender doesn't necessarily match up with the Chandler Rapist.
Aceves' wife, Claudia, and their young son and daughter answered the couple's apartment door Saturday morning, distraught.
"We're doing OK but our kids are very scared because they don't have their father and they don't know when they are going to see him," she said in Spanish.
She declined to talk about the arrest.
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