Trucker arrested in Utah in series of decades-old rape cases

CLEARFIELD, Utah — A long-haul trucker suspected of breaking into homes and sexually assaulting women has been arrested in connection with nine decades-old cases in Utah and Wyoming.

Utah police arrested Mark Douglas Burns, 69, at his house in Ogden on Wednesday after DNA samples from a half-brother linked Burns to the series of attacks between 1991 and 2001, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Burns was “calm” and asked police why they were arresting him, Clearfield Police Chief Kelly Bennett said.

Police have charged Burns in two rape cases in Utah but say there may be more victims as the trucker frequently travelled for work. In Davis County, Burns faces eight counts of aggravated sexual assault, six counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated burglary and one count of aggravated robbery.

No attorney was immediately listed in court documents. Neighbor Pat Sheehan told Salt Lake City’s KUTV that Burns was “a model neighbor” for the past 10 years, always friendly and helpful.

Many of the accusers lived in apartment complexes near trucking routes. Burns would usually enter through an unlocked sliding-glass door, Bennett said.

In one case, court documents say Burns broke into a woman’s home in 2000, naked. He raped her and bound her wrists and feet before leaving.

Prosecutors say in a different case from 2001 that Burns broke into a family’s home wearing a nylon stocking and gloves and brandishing a gun. He bound the family, raped a woman and sexually assaulted her 19-year-old daughter.

Utah police asked police agencies throughout the West to upload DNA samples from similar unsolved rape cases into a national database.

Authorities in Laramie and Rock Springs in Wyoming are preparing charges against Burns, Bennet said. Other cities in Utah are reviewing cases with DNA links to Burns.

Burns is being held in the Davis County Jail without bail.

“This case has just begun for us,” the police chief said.