The secret Los Angeles life of the man known as the “Boston Strip Mall Rapist”

Police say the secret life of a suspected serial rapist known as the “Boston Strip Mall Rapist,” who has been on the run for more than three decades, began to emerge after he was spotted on a yacht in Los Angeles earlier this year.

When the suspect, Steven Paul Gayle, 71, realized he was being watched, he attempted to flee and was pursued by Los Angeles Police Department officers for 90 minutes before he was eventually arrested.

Authorities from Los Angeles and Boston were seen executing a search warrant in Wilmington on a mega yacht named “Dior” that was reportedly owned by Gayle and was docked at a marina.

The 71-year-old man had been identified and charged with kidnapping, armed robbery and rape of two women at a store in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1989.

U.S. Marshals Service officials publicly identified Gayle as a suspect in May.

“He held a gun to both women's heads and sexually assaulted them,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told WFXT Boston 25 News at the time.

A DNA profile was developed from evidence left at the scene in 2001, but there was no match for the profile in law enforcement databases. It wasn't until investigators used forensic genetic genealogy that Gayle was identified as a suspected rape victim.

The 71-year-old man is also wanted for questioning in connection with a series of similar violent sexual assaults that occurred in the greater Boston area between 1989 and 1990, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

He is believed to have lived in several states, including Las Vegas, Nevada, using various aliases, including Steven Pisarcik, John Rossi and Paul Costa.

“Are you kidding me?” said Don Smollett, a fellow marina resident, when he learned of Gale's history. “Yeah, I've talked to him. I don't know much about him, but we've talked many, many times. He's been here before. He remodeled that boat. He brought it here.”

Gayle reportedly told several people that she was connected to the famous fashion company after which her yacht was named.

“According to a man who worked on the ship, he was selling Dior, perfumes, [something]” Smollett told KTLA.

Authorities say the 71-year-old man has a history of embezzling money from others and has a criminal record in Southern California dating back to 1984. There have also been reports that he may have had prior ties to organized crime.

A longtime fugitive being held on $2 million bail appeared in Los Angeles court on Tuesday in a decades-old check forgery case in Los Angeles County.

It's unclear when authorities plan to extradite Gayle to the Boston area.