Accused ‘Potomac River Rapist’ found dead in cell while awaiting trial for murder – Law Officer

WASHINGTON, D.C. – An inmate who was accused of being the “Potomac River Rapist” was found dead in his Washington, D.C., jail cell on Saturday while awaiting trial in a murder case, police said.

Giles Warrick was accused of murdering one woman and sexually assaulting nine others in the Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Md., areas between 1991 and 1998, Fox News reported when he was arrested in 2019.

Warrick, 63, was discovered hanging from a sheet in the jail cell during a routine check just before 8 a.m. He was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, FOX5 DC reported, citing officials with D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.

Police did not release further details regarding the circumstances leading up to Warrick’s death.

A suspect tagged the “Potomac River Rapist” sexually violated nine women, including an 18-year-old babysitter and two women whose children were in the home at the time of the attack. His victims ranged in age from 18 to 58, officials said. Investigators believe Warrick was the rapist. Moreover, he was suspected of murdering Christine Mirzayan, 29, in the summer of 1998 as she walked home from a cookout in Georgetown, D.C.

The FBI said eight of the 10 attacks, which began in 1991, were linked by DNA, and all of the attacks were linked by Warrick’s similar violent methods. He was arrested in South Carolina in November 2019, according to FOX5 DC.

Warrick’s trial for the murder of Mirzayan was scheduled to being Nov. 29.

Officials said an investigation into Warrick’s death is ongoing.

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