BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – A man was arrested Saturday afternoon by detectives at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in connection with a sexual battery of a mentally handicapped woman, Boynton Beach police said.
Pascal Estime, 55, is accused of sexually battering the woman, who is now 33 years old, on two occasions at a house, impregnating her. Police said the pregnancy was terminated and DNA from the fetus was retained for evidentiary purposes.
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The case against Estime went cold for 12 years, during which time his whereabouts were unknown.
Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said a detective adopted the case in July 2016 and tracked Estime to Orlando, where he obtained a search warrant for the man's DNA. But Estime went to Haiti before the warrant could be served.
The warrant for Estime's DNA was executed with assistance from the Orange County Sheriff's Office on June 13 at his home in Orlando, Slater said. The detective drove there to collect the DNA swab and submit it for processing.
Slater said the detective was notified Thursday that the probability of paternity for Estime in reference to the compared fetal material was 99.9997 percent. A warrant was obtained for Estime's arrest for two counts of sexually battery on a mentally defective person.
The detective received information that Estime booked a JetBlue flight Fort Lauderdale to Haiti, Slater said.
With assistance from the Broward Sheriff's Office and U.S. marshals, Estime was taken into custody while pretending to sleep at Gate F4 in the JetBlue terminal, Slater said.
Estime was taken to the Boynton Beach Police Department, where he gave a full confession, Slater said.