SAUGUS, MASS. (WHDH) - A former bus driver for children with special needs who is charged with kidnapping and raping one of his young passengers in 1998 was ordered held without bail Friday after he was captured and returned to Massachusetts.
Henry Gonzalez, previously of Lynn and now 44, fled before his June 2000 trial after he allegedly kidnapped a 13-year-old special needs student and raped her at his home on Dec. 16, 1998 in Saugus.
The Essex District Attorney’s Office indicted Gonzalez on two counts of rape of a child by force, two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, and kidnapping. Authorities said he later dropped her off at the Square One Mall and she made her way to school on her own, where she immediately reported what happened to school officials.
Saugus detectives and the troopers from the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section began an intensive investigation to locate Gonzalez. Officials named him to the Massachusetts State Police Most Wanted list in 2001.
Detectives and troopers eventually developed information that Gonzalez was in the Dominican Republic, where he was arrested by deputy marshals in late May. Officials completed his extradition Thursday night.
The case is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on November 27, 2017.
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