The man known as the “Aspen Hill rapist” has pleaded guilty to three more attacks from the 1970s.
Timothy Buzbee, 54, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree rape in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Monday, prosecutors said. Authorities have called Buzbee a serial rapist who terrorized the Aspen Hill community and other areas of the county in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was suspected in up to 18 rapes near Aspen Hill reported between 1980 and 1982, according to court papers, and was charged in October 2009 in additional cases from the 1970s.
In the mid-1980s, Buzbee was convicted in two rape cases and pleaded guilty in a third; he was sentenced to three life terms. His attorneys had fought the charges filed in 2009, arguing that prosecutors had agreed not to pursue further cases in exchange for the guilty plea. The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled against Buzbee in July, writing that prosecutors didn’t renege on a plea deal and the new charges could proceed.
Prosecutors said Buzbee admitted to three separate attacks that went beyond the Aspen Hill area:
- April 14, 1977: He approached a woman walking on the 400 block of Venice Drive in Silver Spring, put his hand over her mouth and told her he had a knife. Buzbee then forced her into a backyard and raped her.
- June 3, 1978: Buzbee bumped into a woman while jogging, then ran ahead and waited for her at a corner. He forced her at gunpoint into the front yard of a house on the 1500 block of Baylor Drive in Rockville and raped her.
- Jan. 25, 1979: Buzbee approached a woman who was walking on the 12900 block of Valleywood Drive in Wheaton, threatened to kill her and raped her.
Buzbee faces another sentencing hearing Thursday and could face more life terms.
