Fugitive Tuen Lee hid for 10 years and worked as a landscape gardener

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From Megan Palin

A fugitive known as the “bad breath rapist” who was arrested in a police raid yesterday had worked as a landscaper in the area for 10 years, sources told The Post on Friday.

Convicted sex offender Tuen Kit Lee, 55, was arrested Tuesday near his unsuspecting girlfriend’s $4.3 million mansion in the San Francisco area after being convicted of rape in Massachusetts 17 years ago and on the run.

Lee had been living with his partner, a wealthy florist who, according to Massachusetts State Police, had no idea of ​​his violent past and thought his name was “Randy.”

According to authorities, he had worked as a tree trimmer in his girlfriend’s flower shop.

“(Lee) went around trimming bushes and special trees on luxury homes,” Quincy Police Chief Mark Kennedy told the Post.

“It looks like he’s been doing this full-time for at least ten years.”

Kennedy added that authorities will escort Lee on a flight back to Massachusetts tonight, where he faces new charges, including being a fugitive citizen.

“He is being held here on a warrant,” Kennedy said, adding that Lee is expected to be arraigned in Quincy District Court on Friday.

Officers observed Lee and the unidentified woman, described by police as a long-time “companion,” leaving their home on Tuesday and then stopped them during a traffic stop.

Lee initially gave a false name, but later confessed his true identity, which was confirmed by fingerprints.

“His partner did not know who he really was despite their 15-year relationship in California,” state police said.

Because of his dark past, on February 2, 2005, Lee broke into the home of a waitress who worked at his family’s restaurant in the Boston suburb of Quincy.

He threatened his victim with a knife, tied her hands to a bed with cable ties and brutally raped her, police said at the time.

Although he was wearing a ski mask, police said investigators were able to identify him in part because the victim recognized her boss’s terrible bad breath.

“He was ultimately identified by his DNA and his terrible breath, earning him the nickname ‘The Bad Breath Rapist,'” state police said.

DNA evidence also linked Lee to the crime scene and he was found guilty of kidnapping and rape in a 2007 trial.

By the time the jury announced the verdict, he had already fled the state and evaded state power for the next 16 years.

At one point, Lee even appeared in an episode of “America’s Most Wanted.”

But after images of a man believed to be Lee appeared on social media, investigators were able to track him down to Contra Costa County, California, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Kennedy told the Washington Post that phone and Internet records also helped investigators track down the rapist in Diablo, a small town outside San Francisco.

“There are violent criminals out there who believe they can commit crimes without being held accountable for their actions,” Chief Inspector Sean LoPiccolo, head of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force, said in a statement about Lee’s arrest.

“Tuen Lee was on the run for more than 16 years and the tireless efforts of law enforcement to find and arrest him will hopefully bring peace of mind to the victim and her family,” he added.

Lee now faces a life sentence.