A 62-year-old man is now in custody after being linked to multiple sexual crimes stemming back to the 1980s according to the Houston Police Department.
The suspect was identified as Phillip Cerf. Houston Mayor John Whitmire, HPD Chief J. Noe Diaz, and FBI officials are set to announce his official arrest after Cerf was charged with four counts of aggravated sexual assault last week.
Cerf's alleged crimes include being accused of luring a woman into his car and raping her at gunpoint in 1997. Investigators are also accusing Cerf of sexual crimes in 2009, 2013, and a 2016 rape case where a woman was raped at gunpoint in the north Houston area.
RELATED: Serial rape suspect arrested 29 years after first crime, police say
According to court documents, investigators linked all four rapes together in July 2025 and identified Cerf as a suspect in 2026.
According to documents, undercover officers began surveilling him at his Atascocita apartment in April and were able to obtain his DNA for testing.
During the press conference on Friday, officials said a victim has come forward and stated that she was sexually assaulted back in 1988.
An officer reportedly saw him spit on the ground and gathered the evidence, and it matched DNA collected from all four victims, according to charging documents.
Investigators said Cerf may have committed additional assaults and are looking for any potential victims to come forward.
Cerf's bond is set at $2 million.