{"id":771,"date":"2026-05-20T21:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:01:35","slug":"dna-ties-man-accused-in-other-cases-to-girls-assault-in-miami-beach-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=771","title":{"rendered":"DNA ties man accused in other cases to girl\u2019s assault in Miami Beach: cops"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><!-- --><!-- --><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>A man was arrested on Tuesday after being accused of molesting a girl in a portable bathroom nearly 11 years ago, marking his fourth arrest this year for alleged sexual abuse against children in Miami Beach from 2010-2017, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=770\">Cuba\u2019s \u2018Operation Scorpion\u2019: A look at the federal indictment of Ra\u00fal Castro<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The accusations against Freddy Zelaya, 46, began after a man came forward to report he had been abused by Zelaya as a child, according to a series of arrest affidavits by the Miami Beach Police Department.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Zelaya started to abuse him when he was around 10 years old, lasting from 2010-2017, the affidavit said. He is accused of raping the boy and frequently forcing him to watch child pornography.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>On Jan. 15, Miami Beach police arrested Zelaya. He denied the allegations.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Then, a woman and a girl went to police about two weeks later, the affidavits said. Both had been aware their attacker was arrested and wanted to report their abuse, too.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The woman told investigators he was an \u201copportunistic attacker\u201d who started regularly molesting her starting when she was 7 years old in 2014, the affidavit said. She hadn\u2019t previously reported these encounters to her parents \u201cout of shame and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>When police interviewed the girl, she described being molested in 2014 during a Christmastime visit to his home, the affidavit said. She was \u201cmerely five years old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>During the course of the investigation, the male victim told police that Zelaya had confided in him that he had once taken a girl to a portable restroom in 2015 to sexually abuse her, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=768\">\u2018Execute him\u2019: Cuban Americans in South Florida celebrate Raul Castro indictment<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>There was an attack during which a father was walking with his four children near North Shore Open Space Park when he noticed one of them was missing, the Miami Herald reported on Oct. 13, 2015.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>He went looking for his daughter and saw a man walking out of the bushes holding her hand, according to the Herald archives. The girl told police at the time the man held a knife to her and led her to a portable toilet at a construction site between the park and Altos Del Mar, a gated community.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The girl was 7 years old, according to a 2015 report by WTVJ-NBC 6.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>After the male victim accused Zelaya of taking part in an incident whose details matched the construction-site assault, investigators drafted a warrant for his DNA, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Zelaya adamantly told police he didn\u2019t sexually abuse the girl and offered a sample of his DNA, the affidavit said. The Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office laboratory compared his sample with a sample from the girl taken over a decade ago, and they matched.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>This week, he was arrested for the fourth time this year in Miami-Dade on one count of molestation of a child younger than 12 involving a defendant age 18 or older and one count of kidnapping a child under 13 to commit a lewd and lascivious act, court records show. He also faces eight other charges stemming from the alleged sexual abuse of the other victims.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Zelaya was being held without bond Wednesday at the Metro West Detention Center, jail records show. General Counsel Guy Robinson, of the Miami-Dade Public Defender\u2019s Office, said \u201cwe have no comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=767\">\u2018Time does not erase murder.\u2019 Miami leaders react to Raul Castro\u2019s indictment<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--]--><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police say a man is charged after victims from 2010 to 2017 came forward and DNA tied him to a 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault of a girl in Miami Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>DNA ties man accused in other cases to girl\u2019s assault in Miami Beach: cops - 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