CUTLER BAY, Fla. – In July 2012, a 22-year-old woman was raped by a stranger after getting off a bus in southwest Miami-Dade, according to police. She eventually got away, they said, but the case went cold with police unable to identify the perpetrator — until an encounter Wednesday.
Nearly 12 years later, police said the woman spotted the suspect at a Cutler Bay motel and called authorities.
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That led to the arrest of Ralph John Davis, 59, who resides at the Motel 6 at 10775 Caribbean Blvd., according to Miami-Dade police.
Police said Davis and the woman had been traveling on the county bus on July 20, 2012 and the pair got off at around 11:30 that night near the victim’s home at the time near Southwest 280th Street and 143rd Court. An arrest report states that Davis, a stranger to the woman, held the door open for her as she exited.
Authorities said she noticed the then-unidentified man following her as she walked towards her apartment complex, pacing her as she crossed the street.
Police said he followed her as she zigzagged in an attempt to lose him.
The report states that Davis “approached her from behind, put her in a choke hold and dragged her near a wall.”
“The victim repeatedly begged (him) not to kill her and he stated, ‘Don’t worry, I just want to f--- you!’” investigators wrote.
Authorities said Davis sexually assaulted the woman twice before she found an opportunity to run away, nude, and called the police.
Miami-Dade police detectives couldn’t find or identify the suspect, exhausting all leads, leaving the case “open and unsolved” for more than a decade until the woman, now 34, spotted Davis at the Motel 6 Wednesday.
Police said they took Davis into custody and, in a “self-serving statement,” he admitted to being on the same bus as the victim on the day of the rape.
Authorities arrested Davis on two counts of sexual battery.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Davis is a multi-time convicted felon who most recently left custody on Feb. 24, 2023 after a grand theft auto conviction in Lee County.
Davis, whose aliases include “Arthur Brown,” “Patrick Donald,” “Mark Jamison” and “Antonio Padron,” had three prior prison stints related to additional grand theft auto convictions, as well as multiple fraud and forgery convictions in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to FDOC.
Davis, who’s also being held on a grand theft auto charge, remained in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional on a $127,500 bond as of Thursday afternoon.