A 49-year-old man who was set to go to trial next month on charges of aggravated rape of a child, kidnapped his 16-year-old stepdaughter as she was walking home from school in Acton and killed her before turning the gun on himself, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office said.
The 16-year-old had previously accused her stepfather, Juliano Santana, of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions.
Acton police were alerted to the girl’s abduction around 4 p.m. Thursday and were able to locate Santana based on a GPS monitoring device placed on him during the criminal proceeding for the abuse charges. When officers arrived to a parking lot on Great Road outside the girl’s residence they found both Santana and the girl dead of gunshot wounds, Ryan and Acton Chief of Police James Cogan said in a joint statement.
Police believe Santana abducted the girl as she was walking on Great Road after school and later shot her before turning the gun on himself, according to the statement.
On Sept. 7, 2021, the girl reported Santana had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. He was arrested and arraigned that day on six counts of aggravated rape of a child. During his arraignment in Malden District Court, a judge set bail for Santana at $30,000 with the conditions that he be monitored by a GPS device, stay way from and have no contact with his accuser, and have no unsupervised conduct with anyone under 18. The girl also had an active restraining order against Santana, officials said.
Santana was set to go to trial on the aggravated rape of a child charges on July 29.
