fb-pixelSuspect arrested in rapes that rattled Nantucket - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Suspect arrested in rapes that rattled Nantucket

Carpenter could face more charges

David Matterson was arrainged Wednesday at Nantucket District Court.David G. Curran for The Boston Globe/Globe Freelance

NANTUCKET — The rapes, at knifepoint, began in 2008. Then came another, and a third and fourth. By the time another woman was assaulted last year, many islanders were on edge. But the cases went unsolved.

In at least two of the attacks, the man was said to have a Jamaican accent, information that circulated on social media and put the island’s Jamaican community on the defensive. When authorities asked Jamaican men to voluntarily offer DNA samples, nearly 100 did.

Then on Columbus Day weekend, police got the break they had been waiting for. A woman fought off an assailant who had broken into her home, and evidence left behind linked him to other attacks.

Advertisement



On Tuesday, police approached a job site to arrest David Matterson, a 35-year-old carpenter from Jamaica. When he saw them, he broke down as his co-workers watched in disbelief.

“He was someone who always had a smile on his face,” said Frank Daily, the owner of Daily Construction, where Matterson worked as a subcontractor. “No one you would think had another side.”

Matterson was arraigned Wednesday in the 2008 and 2014 sexual assaults, and Police Chief William Pittman said he expects Matterson will face additional charges. It is also possible, he said, that other victims may not have come forward.

David Matterson.Nantucket police department

Matterson pleaded not guilty and was ordered held without bail until Monday, when a hearing will determine whether he is too dangerous to be released.

Prosecutors said investigators had separately obtained Matterson’s DNA from a soup container and matched it to evidence from the two rapes. In both cases, prosecutors said, Matterson raped the women at knifepoint. In the 2014 attack, he cut off the woman’s bra with a knife and took it when he left.

Authorities declined to specify how they came to bring charges against him, saying the investigation was ongoing. Records in the case were impounded. His lawyer declined to comment on the charges.

Advertisement



Matterson had no criminal record on Nantucket, where he had lived off and on since 2008, part of a large contingent of seasonal workers from Jamaica and other countries.

As he left the courthouse Wednesday, escorted by a pair of police officers, a woman shouted at him: “Hope you die in jail, scumbag.”

Nantucket residents said they were relieved by the arrest, and some said the island was not as safe as many believe.

“I have the heebie-jeebies walking around by myself with the dogs, and I get laughed at on occasion, but this is why,” said Shelli Howard, a year-round resident. “You want to think Nantucket is quiet, quaint, protected, no evil, but it’s just like New York City or Boston or any suburb. I think a lot of us need to wake up.”

Pittman, the police chief, said that between 2008 and 2014, at least three other women were victimized in attacks similar to the ones with which Matterson was charged.

“Matterson was a very legitimate threat to the women in our community,” he said.

Pittman praised the Jamaican men who, in an unusual step, provided DNA samples. He said it was regrettable they had been viewed with suspicion in recent months.

“That was unfair,” he said.

In the 2008 attack, Matterson allegedly sexually assaulted a woman for several hours after entering a home through an unlocked door, Pittman said. Matterson was also charged with assaulting a woman in September 2014 until another resident rushed to her aid. The suspect fled the scene.

Advertisement



Matterson rented a room in a gray-shingled home on a dead-end street, one street from the site of the Columbus Day weekend attack, and neighbors said they rarely saw him. Two women who also lived in the home said they believed he lived alone.

“We hardly see each other,” said one of the women, who declined to speak further.

Patrick Irving, a Jamaican native who worked with Matterson, said co-workers used to tease him for being so quiet and never going out after work.

They joked that he should have a lot of money since he didn’t have a girlfriend and generally stayed in. Matterson would only laugh in reply.

“Sometimes you see people and you don’t know what is on the inside,” Irving said. “He’s so quiet, you don’t know.”

Irving, who saw the arrest, said Matterson began crying before the officers spoke to him.

As they led him away, Irving asked, “David, what’s happening?” and “David, what’s wrong?” But Matterson just kept crying.

Daily said the charges against Matterson had left him badly shaken. But even in retrospect, he could recall nothing suspicious about his behavior.

“This pains me to say, but our foreman and I always said we wanted more workers like him because he was so diligent and productive,” he said.


Peter Schworm can be reached at peter.schworm@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globepete.

Advertisement