Stewart Weldon was arrested in October last year after taking on nine cops who saw him beating a woman in the street. In December, he was released on bail. He is pictured in his May 27 mugshot
Police released suspected Springfield serial killer from their custody in December, seven months before the bodies of three women were found on his property, after arresting him for beating a woman in the street, it has been revealed.
In October 2017, Stewart Weldon was arrested after trying to flee police who watched him beat an unidentified woman in the street at 9.30pm.
It took nine police officers armed with batons and stun guns to subdue him and he bit one of them as they wrestled him into handcuffs.
He spent two months in jail on charges of assault but was released in December after posting $2,500 in bond and pleading the Probation Department to be allowed out so that he could witness the birth of his child.
He was granted bail and was fitted with an electronic ankle monitor which he cut off in February this year.
They never tracked down the woman they watched him hit in the street.
Details of his October arrest were obtained by Mass Live on Tuesday as the scale of Weldon’s criminal past and the number of chances police may have had to snare him became clear.
On May 30 and 31, police discovered the bodies of America Lyden, 33, Ernestine Ryans, 47, and Kayla Escalante, 27, at the home where he lived with his mother.
Could they have been saved? America Lyden (left) was reported missing in December, the same month Weldon was released. Kayla Escalante (right) also disappeared around the same time. Both were found dead on his property on May 30 and 31
They were alerted to it after she called them to report a foul smell.
Weldon was already in custody after being arrested days earlier following a high speed car chase when began with police trying to pull him over for a broken tail light.
Ernestine Ryans, 47, was the third woman found dead. She had been missing since March
The chase ended with him crashing into a police cruiser. Once he was in handcuffs, a woman who was in the passenger seat told police they had saved her life.
She had ‘grotesque’ injuries including stab wounds to the abdomen and a possible fractured jaw.
The woman, who is 25, told officers that Weldon had been keeping her as a slave and that he raped her repeatedly.
She said she had been held by him for at least a month. It is not clear why police did not go immediately to the home where the bodies were found after this arrest.
When they searched the property on May 30 and May 31, they also found a child living there.
Weldon’s mother, whose name the property is in, has not been charged and he is yet to be charged in relation to the bodies found at the home.
Weldon is pictured in court on Monday as he faced a second kidnapping charge for a fifth woman who is yet to be named. It involved a February 1 incident
Weldon is pictured in a 2006 mugshot. His criminal background is extensive
After his May 27 arrest, he was charged with kidnapping and rape to assault.
On Monday, he returned to court to face a second kidnapping charge, this time in relation to a fourth adult woman who he is alleged to have mistreated in February this year.
No details of that case were released on Monday other than that he has been also charged with sexual assault to rape.
Weldon’s arrest in October last year was not his first. He has a lengthy criminal history which dates back to his teenage years.
Police in Springfield have been somewhat tight-lipped on their investigation into Weldon and the bodies found at his home.
Police are pictured searching the man’s home on May 31. Weldon was already in custody after being pulled over for a broken taillight. He had a woman in the car who said she was his hostage
His aunt told DailyMail.com last week that he had been ‘off his meds’ and that ‘something snapped’ in him prior to his arrest.
Lyden was reported missing in December but she had been missing since last June.
Escalante, a mother-of-one, is believed to have vanished in December. It is not clear how long Ryans was missing.
Their families are yet to make public comment about their deaths.
As part of their grim search, police were pictured looking in a shed on the property