A 21-year-old Los Angeles man described by police as a “serial rapist” has been arrested for allegedly taking advantage of women and teenage girls using his own social media accounts over a two-year period, authorities said Wednesday.
Michael Neal Watson Jr. was arrested on November 8 and faces 16 felony charges including rape, assault, robbery and attempted extortion. He remains in custody in lieu of $1.7 million bail. In all, a task force identified 12 incidents between June 19, 2020, and July 20, 2022, in which Watson allegedly committed crimes against 13 women and four girls under the age of 18.
“The incidents shared a common methodology in which the suspect initiated communication with the victims through Instagram and then lured them to various locations where the victims were sexually assaulted,” Los Angeles police said in the statement.
The investigation into Watson began in February, when the sheriff’s department responded to a report of a rape and forcible robbery in Walnut, a suburban community east of Los Angeles. The suspect, later identified as Watson, had been invited to the home of an unidentified woman after meeting her on Instagram. When he arrived, he allegedly raped one of the two women in the house and stole their cell phones.
According to police, Watson allegedly “re-contacted one of the victims through social media and sent her threatening messages. The suspect also accessed her phone, posed as the victim on social media, and extorted money from the victim by threatening to post nude images obtained from “her” phone.
During the course of the subsequent investigation, the statement said: “DNA evidence linking the suspect to similar incidents reported in Los Angeles, Hollywood, East Los Angeles and Inglewood was obtained.”
According to the criminal complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News, Watson faces five counts of second-degree robbery, four counts of attempted extortion, and two counts of forcible rape. Watson has also been charged with the forcible rape of a child victim over the age of 14; assault with a firearm; aggravated sexual assault of a child; grand robbery; and illicit sexual relations with a minor more than three years younger (than the alleged attacker).
His arrest was the result of a multi-agency investigation between the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Police Department and Inglewood Police.
“Based on the nature of the crimes, detectives believe there may be additional unidentified victims,” Los Angeles police said.
