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Not Much Could've Been Done With Stewart Weldon Evidence, Say Officials

Stewart Weldon in a mug shot.
Springfield Police Department
Stewart Weldon is charged with kidnapping and attempted rape.

Last spring, investigators found three bodies inside the home of a Springfield, Massachusetts, man who had just been charged with apparently unrelated crimes.

Law enforcement officials in Hampden County now say there's not much they could've done differently last year when a woman reported a rape that was later linked to the same defendant.

In May of 2017, Chicopee police received a call from Baystate Medical Center reporting a woman who said she was raped. The alleged victim told police the attack happened at the assailant's house, but she wasn't sure where that was.

The alleged assailant was later identified as Stewart Weldon.

Chicopee Police spokesman Michael Wilk said police determined the alleged assault likely occurred in Springfield, outside their jurisdiction. They offered to bring her to the Springfield Police Department to report the alleged crime, Wilk said, but she said she'd rather go later, by herself.

“If the detectives realized she was really struggling, having a hard time with it, that would obviously change the way we might handle things. At that point they might kind of insist on saying, ‘Look, we’re going take you there, just to stay with you,’ ” Wilk said. “But those signs weren’t there.”

The Chicopee police incident was first reported by The Republican newspaper. The alleged victim apparently never reported the attack to Springfield police until June 2018, the Republican reported.

DNA evidence in that case, and another from 2009, linked Weldon to the alleged crimes, Hampden County District Attorney spokesman Jim Leydon said. But no action could have been taken.

“In both those cases, as of January this year, a criminal complaint had not come forward for prosecution to this office,” Leydon said.

Because there was no criminal complaint, the District Attorney's office could not charge Weldon with those particular crimes, even though there was evidence linking him to the alleged assaults.

Weldon is currently being held on $2 million bail on separate charges of kidnapping and attempted rape.

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