Northbridge Rape Suspect Captured on California Beach

By Laurel J. Sweet
Originally published by The Boston Herald, June 26, 2001

A Northbridge cabbie, who fled across country last month when his teenage daughter found videos of him allegedly raping her friends, was captured in California yesterday fondling himself on a public beach, police said.

When park rangers Griff Hutton and Jane Hall realized the man they were questioning was Peter Gagnon, 48, a fugitive from justice in Massachusetts, the 220-pound ex-Marine tried to run, Hutton said.

"I was surprised he ran as quickly as he did,'' Hutton said last night from the park rangers' station at Carpintera State Beach. "I ended up cornering him in an apartment complex parking lot.''

Bay State authorities have been looking for Gagnon since May 19, when his 14-year-old daughter turned the videos, which she found in a strongbox in his closet, over to Northbridge police.

Gagnon is accused of repeatedly raping six girls, ages 10 to 14, over a period of six months.

Investigators said he drugged his victims into unconsciousness while they were at pajama parties at his condominium, then filmed the assaults with a camcorder.

Hutton said he and Hall went looking for Gagnon after two male beachgoers complained that a man was exposing himself.

"He looked like your average guy,'' Hutton said. "He was wearing shorts, a T-shirt, a ball cap, sunglasses … He had a beach chair.''

Gagnon initially produced only his military identification, but then admitted to having a Massachusetts license. It was then, Hutton said, that he and Hall discovered Gagnon was facing felony charges back home.

Gagnon was booked on a fugitive-from-justice charge.