CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – The Conway man wanted for murder and nine rapes in the D.C. area has been released from Horry County jail for extradition.
Records with the J. Reuben Long Detention Center show Giles Daniel Warrick was disposed on Wednesday morning. A federal judge earlier this week granted Warrick’s request to be sent to D.C. for detention and an arraignment hearing.
Warrick, 60, lived in Conway for about a year at an address off Highway 905. Neighbors in Conway said Warrick mostly kept to himself, and that they didn’t see much of him.
D.C. authorities believe Warrick lived in the D.C. metropolitan area prior to moving to Conway. The nine rapes and murder occurred in the D.C. metropolitan area during the ‘90s when the suspect was dubbed the “Potomac River Rapist.”
Horry County police officials said they will be reviewing any outstanding cases for possible similarities or likenesses to those involving Warrick. It is unknown at this time whether Warrick is connected to any crimes in the area.
Authorities say they identified Warrick through forensic genealogy – from DNA companies that track down family members, the sites that let a user research their ancestry. Police said they were able to make the arrest from matches in those databases of family members.
Montgomery County Police Department Detective Todd Williams said on the FBI’s website that the suspect began stalking, hunting and sexually assaulting women over 20 years ago. Seven of the nine attacks were linked by DNA while all the attacks are linked by similarities in the violent methods.
Victims were attacked in their homes and included an 18-year-old babysitter and a mother whose infant was in the house at the time of the attack, the FBI said.
One of the rapist’s notable victims includes Christine Mirzayan, who was 29 years old in 1998 when she was raped and killed sometime after she began walking home in Washington, DC. The FBI says her killer had previously attacked eight other women from 1991.
