♪ this is "nightline." >> byron: tonight, speaking out. >> took away my freedom. >> one of the alleged victims of the boston serial rape suspect. >> i saw that he had a gun from his hand. he just said," get in the car." >> byron: describes living in fear for 15 years until dna led detectives to a breakthrough. >> are you confident that this is the guy? >> yes. >> byron: with a new york city corporate attorney now facing charges. >> he can't terrorize this city anymore. we're not his prey. >> byron: could the

investigation lead to other victims? and aaliyah. ♪ the princess of r&b behind hits like "try again" like you've never seen her before. >> the moment i step foot on stage i was like, this is what i want to do, i want to do this, i'm happy doing this. >> byron: the superstar's life and legacy. her influence on a new generation of female artists more than a decade after her tragic death. and her controversial marriage to r. kelly re-examined. febreze! hate it when a car freshener hits you with an overwhelming blast of perfume? febreze car vent clips work differently. febreze gives you consistent freshness that starts just right and stays just right... ...for 40 days. upgrade to febreze car. up at 2:00am again? tonight, try pure zzzs all night. ...for 40 days. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer.

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every other month, and i'm good to go. ♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. it was a string of unsolved rapes more than a decade ago that left the city of boston on edge. authorities say the dna detective work has led authorities to a suspect. one of the women allegedly preyed upon is opening up about what she says was taken from her. and about what justice could mean. abc's erielle reshef has the latest installment of "body of evidence just a moment." >> i kept thinking -- is this a nightmare? i'm going to wake up. this is a nightmare, i'm going to wake up. >> reporter: for more than 15 years, 39-year-old lori pinkham says she has lived in a waking

nightmare. >> a big part of my life stopped that day. i couldn't work. i didn't want to spend time with anybody. i would get panic attacks sometimes out of nowhere. it's been really hard. >> reporter: during an open wound that has never healed after she says a man kidnapped her at gunpoint and brutally raped her on an august night in boston 2007. what did that night take away from you? >> my freedom. it took away being able to live my life. i wasn't able to walk in my own hometown without being afraid for my life. >> reporter: prosecutors and police say this is the man who did it, 35-year-old new york corporate attorney matthew nelo who is accused of terrorizing women in the boston neighborhood of charlestown in 2007 and 2008. >> at the time, police put out an alert to warn people about this.

there was a climate of fear in the city. >> the suspect is targeting women who are by themselves. >> we do know that perpetrator of sexual violence send to not do it once and stop. that if there's one victim, chances are -- not in all cases, but chances are there are going to be many. >> reporter: in a courtroom 200 miles from his luxury apartment in new jersey, nelo faces charges of raping three different women, including lori, and attempting to rape a fourth. >> aggravated rape and kidnapping on august 18th of 2007. aggravated rape and kidnapping on november 22nd of 2007. aggravated rape on august 5th of 2008. assault with intent to rape and indecent assault and battery in the early morning hours of december 23rd of 2008. >> how do you plead to those offenses, guilty or not guilty? >> not guilty. >> reporter: his attorney says he could be out of jail on $500,000 cash bail. are you confident that this is

the guy? >> yes, absolutely. >> take us back to that night in 2007. what do you remember from that night? >> i was at one of the clubs. i was doing promotions. i was walking to my car. it was really desolate. there was nobody around. he pulled up in his car next to me and started yelling to me like, "you need a ride?" and i was like, "no, i'm okay." and that's when i saw he had a gun in his hand. and he just said, "get in the car." >> reporter: prosecutors say the suspect drove to terminal street in charlestown. then an industrial part of the city. >> the farther we went, the more panic started setting in. the door was locked. so as soon as he stopped the car and i was able to get it open, i tried to run as fast as i could. and he caught up to me, and he

hit me with a gun repeatedly. and i fell on these -- some strain tracks. that's when he raped me. >> how did you manage to escape? >> i didn't. i was in shock for probably four hours, five hours. he had stolen all my belongings, my purse with my passport, my social security card, my debit card, credit card, everything. so he knew everything about me. and i knew nothing of him. >> how did you manage to get help? >> eventually, when the sun came up, there was a person i could see down the street a little bit. and i frantically ran over and asked if i could just use the phone to call 911. >> reporter: shortly after, an ambulance arrived and took lori to a nearby hospital where she was examined for sexual assault. >> i got a call in the morning

from a police officer who was at the hospital with her and told me what happened. >> as a mom, what was your reaction? >> just -- fear. overwhelming fear. >> according to court documents, you underwent a rape exam. did they ever tell you if there had been a match in the system for the suspect? >> no. there was no match for my suspect. eventually, later that year, they said they did match to another victim. and then again the following year, there was two other victims that they matched the dna, but there was no match in the system. >> reporter: according to court documents, the boston police crime lab later obtained a male dna profile from lori's exam, but no suspect came up. what has it been like watching lori struggle with this for 15 years? >> it's heartbreaking. i feel like there's a part of her that didn't get to continue her life. you know? so she didn't finish growing up

to become a woman with a career and a family. but for me, i didn't get to see her grow up. i kind of lost her at a young age. >> research tells us that often when a trauma occurs, you are frozen in that moment. there are changes that happen in people's brains once they're traumatized that help to kind of solidify that frozenness. >> did you lose hope that they'd ever find the suspect? >> yeah. i mean, after the fifth year, the sixth year, the seventh year, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13 -- eventually i gave up. i didn't think this day was ever going to happen. >> reporter: but behind the scenes, investigators were working on a potential breakthrough. last year, boston police used dna from unsolved rape kits and checked it against publicly accessible genealogy websites. the results, a federal

investigation. agents following nelo to a corporate event earlier this year. >> fbi agents were able to obtain various utensils and drinking glasses. they watched the defendant use them at a corporate event. >> this arrest accumulates the investigation that employed the use of forensic genealogy from recovered evidence. all four cases are dna connected. >> when you looked at a picture of the suspect, what did you notice? >> his eyes, mostly. i just remember them, because they were, like, black, mostly. just -- his >> reporter: the traumatized brain acts very differently? >> you have sort of flashes in a lot of cases. almost like, you know, polaroid pictures. knowing what that person looks like, looking them in the eyes can be one of them. >> reporter: at the time of the crimes, nelo would have been 19 to 20. his attorney arguing bail should be lowered due to nelo's

accomplishments over the years. >> he's gone on to college, law school, is engaged to be married. has no -- to my knowledge, has no history of default, any kind of higher convictions in this state or any other state. >> reporter: his new fiancee in court during the hearing, clutching rosary beads. >> i pray for his fiancee. >> what would you say to her? >> i would tell her what happened, what he did. i think she deserves to know who the real matthew nelo is. >> he went to the boston latin school, one of the premier schools in the state. he had a lot of friends growing up, then went on to college in wisconsin, went on to law school in san francisco. >> reporter: nelo has maintained his innocence. >> how do you plead to those offenses? >> not guilty. >> it seems that they obtained dna evidence without ever obtaining a search warrant. if that turns out to be true, that's an issue that will be pursued vigorously. >> reporter: he is scheduled to go on trial next year.

if he's released, nelo will have to wear a gps tracker, surrender his passport, and was ordered not to contact any of the alleged victims. >> i'll go to all of the court dates to make sure that i get to speak my voice and also for the other victims that don't want to come forward. i want to be there for them. >> do you want to send a message with your presence in court? >> yeah. he can't terrorize this city anymore. we're not his prey. he can't be a predator in boston or anywhere else. >> byron: our thanks to ariel. up next, she was a rising star, but aaliyah's life was cut tragically short. our new abc news special takes a closer look at the princess of r&b. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis keeps flaring, put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill.

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♪ >> byron: she had a sound and style that set her apart. a crossover talent who was breaking into acting when she died in a plane crash at just 22. but aaliyah was already a superstar. a new abc news special is taking a deep dive into her life and legacy, take a look. >> from the moment i stepped foot on stage, i was like, this is what i want to do, i have to do this, i'm happy doing this. >> she wanted to share her voice with the world from a very, very young age. >> she was 14 years old. in high school. she begins working with r. kelly, who is one of the biggest

r&b artists of that time. >> r. kelly in the early to mid-90s was maybe the biggest star in r&b. >> by this point, he's had a huge hit with "bump and grind." it is literally about bumping and grinding, a very sexual song. ♪ ♪ nothing with a little bump and grind ♪ >> everything he did was gigantic at that point. it sort of kept going up and up and up. >> in the '80s, hip-hop is regional, and it's still a subculture. in the '90s, early '90s, hip-hop starts to become massive. biggie, tupac, jay-z's rising up, gmx. the energy is with hip-hop. r&b is like what do we do? and she's like, i know what to do. >> she had this sound in between hip-hop and r&b. but a little indie sounding.

>> we'd never heard anything like that before. and it was fly. it was just fly. >> it forever changed the course of hip-hop and r&b. >> "ain't nothing but a number" was soulful. but the music still felt like hers. ♪ age ain't but a number ♪ ♪ >> at this point, r. kelly starts to take her under his wing as what is billed at that time as a mentorship. >> r. kelly's influence is on that album from top to bottom. >> when you listen to it today, you would think it was a grown ali that singing and that was a teenage aaliyah. her voice was stunning. >> i remember when i saw the aaliyah album cover. for me, it was like that cool girl. she had shades on, a hoodie with

a leather vest over it. >> her style was r. kelly's style. a junior female version of whatever r. kelly was wearing at the time. the boots, the baggy pants, bandana, sunglasses. kelly's thing was also sunglasses all the time. >> i walked aaliyah and r. kelly onto the set of "video soul." they came in in matching outfits, which was a little, you know -- only people that need to match are couples or parents and kids. we were all kind of like, what -- what is -- uh -- it felt like the uncle you made your kids stay away from. it just seemed too close. >> how is he to work with? >> rob is great to work with. it's not like we work. we're really close. it's fun, really, we just hang out. >> i don't remember working. >> yes, it's, like, fun. >> there had been rumors. something going on between them, he's definitely sleeping with

her. it was gossip. >> i'm going to cut to the chase, i know everybody asks it. what is the situation? because we don't know. >> it comes with the territory in this business, people are going to talk. i just ignore it. >> this rumor came that they had gotten married, and people were like, what? it was sort of like, floating around the culture. >> no, really, i want to let everybody know that it's not true. >> and my editor, my boss, michael shore, said, "call the cook county registrar's office and ask them to see if there's a marriage certificate." somebody answered right away. and she said, "sure, i'll fax it to you right now." and in two minutes, it came through the transom. here's a marriage certificate, aaliyah and r. kelly. and of course she said that she was 18, which she was not at the time. and i believe he was 27.

you know, just ridiculous. and we went on the air with that at mtv news. >> hip-hop star r. kelly did indeed marry the 15-year-old singer aaliyah. >> and it started this sort of firestorm. >> and so the headline on that issue of "vibe" was, "the sex, the soul, the sales, and the scandalous marriage to teenage superstar aaliyah." robert r. kelly is in prison now, but at that time, we did not look hard enough at where we should have looked. the name of the album was "age ain't nothing but a number." >> rock 'n' roll, r&b. people married people too young, people sang about women too young. >> i think so many of us were intoxicated by black music finally getting the credit that it deserved. >> i think that r. kelly and aaliyah was one of the first times that the culture was really reckoning with, this

doesn't feel right. >> aaliyah's family tried to get it immediately annulled. it seemed like some of it happened without their knowledge. >> she didn't want to even deal with it talking to me. so she didn't want to hear about it in the newspaper all day. it was just something that she didn't want to deal with. like, no, that's a bad, bad man. >> the public villainized aaliyah, which i think was the worst part about that whole situation. it's something that made her an untouchable person in music. there were producers and writers who wouldn't work with her. she became almost tarnished by the fact that she was preyed upon by a much older man. it almost ruined aaliyah's career. >> she was an r. kelly protege. he's a known star hitmaker. if he's not standing beside her, can she do it again? i don't know. how much more has she got to say? >> it's hard to, like, reintroduce yourself. but it's not impossible. and i think that anyone who is able to do that, that's what

differentiates stars. >> byron: the abc special "superstar aaliyah" is now streaming on hulu. up next, madonna makes music history again. so just how popular is she? [♪] did you know, unless you treat dandruff regularly, it will keep coming back. try head & shoulders shampoo. dandruff is caused by irritation to a germ that lives on everyone's scalp. unlike regular shampoo, head & shoulders contains zinc pyrithione, which fights the dandruff-causing germ and helps prevent it from coming back. it's gentle on hair and provides up to 100% dandruff protection, clinically proven. try head & shoulders shampoo and conditioner. for best results, use with every wash. this has been medifacts for head & shoulders. i've become a bit of an expert in suncare... an spf-icianado if you will. my bottle of choice? neutrogena® ultra sheer a lightweight blend that protects 6 layers deep with a smooth dry-touch finish.

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♪ >> byron: and finally tonight, the queen of pop as popular as ever. ♪ spend my whole life running from your lies ♪ >> byron: madonna's new track

with weeknd for "the idol" has debuted on the billboard hot 100. ♪ ♪ a dream to be popular kill anyone to be popular ♪ ♪ sell her soul to be popular ♪ >> byron: that means the material girl joins cher as the only female artist with a song to debut on the chart in five distinct decades. congratulations, madonna. that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. see you right back here same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america. good night. thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for adults with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer