Police are searching for a suspect who allegedly robbed the Framingham store and raped employees in 1989

Authorities announced Tuesday that they have identified a suspect who allegedly robbed a Framingham clothing store and raped two women at gunpoint in 1989.

Law enforcement officials are conducting a nationwide search for Stephen Paul Gale, who would now be 71 years old. Gale faces four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a news conference press conference.

According to a later press release from Ryan’s office, Gale is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He was last known to be living in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He has ties to Phoenix as well as several cities in Texas, Utah and Florida. It is suspected that Gale has ties to organized crime.

The last confirmed sighting of Gale was at a family event in 2007, Ryan said. This happened outside of Massachusetts but within the United States. She didn’t say where.

Gale is known to use many aliases: Stephen Pisarcik, John Rossi, Paul Costa, Paul DeRosa, Paul DiCarli, Paul Joseph DeCarlo, Steve Miner, Paul Williams and Paul Ptaszynski.

The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Gale’s arrest. Anyone with relevant information should contact Framingham police at 508-532-5923. Tips can also be sent to the U.S. Marshals office in Boston at 1-877-WANTED2 (926-8332).

Early on the morning of December 27, 1989, two women were working at Hit or Miss, a store on Route 9 in Framingham. The women, aged 18 and 29 at the time, were in the process of opening the store when Gale allegedly walked in and asked for help choosing clothes to buy. He then brandished a .357 Magnum revolver and forced the two victims into the back of the store.

The suspect wanted to know where the store’s money was. He forced the older woman to put cash from a locked safe, a cash register and her purse into a bag, Ryan said.

The younger woman was brought to the front of the store and asked to handwrite a note saying the store would open late that morning. According to prosecutors, Gale had her write the note, stick it on the front door and lock the door.

Gale allegedly took the victims to two separate rooms at the back of the building and asked them to remove their clothing. According to Ryan’s office, he took them one by one to an office where he sexually assaulted each woman while holding a gun to their heads. Throughout the ordeal, Gale told them not to look at him or make any wrong movements or they would be shot, authorities said.

He left them in the back rooms and returned to the front of the store. The women managed to escape through a fire door. They ran through nearby backyards to another house where they sought help. At the time, it was believed that other attacks in the area were related to the Hit or Miss incident. Investigators have not been able to conclusively link any of these cases to Gale.

Both women gave police critical information about the appearance of their attacker immediately after the incident. At that time, forensic evidence was collected and DNA information was uploaded to an online database used by law enforcement in 2001. There was never any match to identify the suspect.

In 2022, investigators hired Parabon NanoLabs to conduct investigative genetic genealogy. The method is relatively new and is now often used to solve unsolved cases. Finally, DNA samples were collected from known members of Gale’s family and compared to evidence obtained at the crime scene. The high likelihood of a relationship likely gave authorities reason to issue the recent arrest warrant for Gale.

Law enforcement agencies across the country have been working to locate Gale. This was complicated by his many pseudonyms, ties to multiple states, and lack of a coherent work history.

“It’s a very long time, and in almost 35 years people can be in many, many places,” Ryan said. “There’s been a real painstaking search over the last few months to find out where he went, where he was and where he might be now.”

Ryan’s office released a 1989 police sketch of the suspect, a 1995 California driver’s license photo of Gale and a recent FBI age history photo to assess his current appearance.

Tuesday’s announcement should send a clear message, Ryan said.

“We don’t stop working on these cases,” she said. “They are never closed. And we don’t forget what people came to the county and did.”