Serial rapist finally on trial for Ballard rapes

The “Belmont Shore Rapist,” Mark Wayne Rathbun is now on trial here in Seattle for three unsolved rapes in Ballard in 1996. Rathbun is already serving a 1,030 year sentence for 10 rapes in Long Beach, California. He lived in Capitol Hill for about a year in 1996, and police say he raped three women in Ballard, one on 46th St. and another on 42nd St. Detectives say Rathbun has a rare DNA marker linking him to at least one of the rapes.