Joseph Raymond Stanton and the police composite sketch
A Long Beach resident was arrested after committing a series of sexual assaults on self-proclaimed prostitute victims.
One of the assaults occurred in August of 2015 and the other assaults occurred in January of this year.
According to the report, “the suspect would pose as a police officer and lure the victims into his car”. When he locked the prostitute victims inside the car, he drove off to an unknown location. At the location(s) he was able to forcefully rape two of them, while one of the victims was able to escape the assault.
On June 2nd, the Santa Ana PD obtained information about the assaults and made the report public in order to help identify the suspect.
Nearly one month later on June 29th, Santa Ana detectives arrested 42-year-old Joseph Raymond Stanton. He was charged for kidnapping the three victims, raping two of them, and attempting to rape the other.
According to a forensic analysis, the DNA obtained in connection with the two rapes matched Stanton’s DNA.
His bail was set at $1 million, but he managed to post the bail and was released on June 30th.
Long Beach police found Stanton dead at an apartment in the 1200 block of 3rd Street on July 1st. The death was an apparent suicide, as evidence showed from the suicide notes that Stanton had left behind. Associates of Stanton confirmed that he had previously been contemplating suicide.
If you have additional information about this case, please contact Corporal Javier Aceves at 714-245-8542.
