DETROIT -- Police said Monday that they have a suspect in custody in connection with a series of sexual assaults of girls on their way to school, including one last week.

Investigators said that the unnamed 41-year-old suspect was arrested in Grosse Pointe Park on unrelated charges. A GPP officer noticed that the man resembled the suspect in what authorities call the "school girl rapes."

The assaults on school girls began three years ago. Police at the time were looking for a man or men who would catch girls as they walked to school and force them into alleys, abandoned homes or garages, then sexually assault them.

One suspect was arrested, charged and convicted of some of the assaults. But when the crimes stopped and then started again, police re-opened the investigation.

In August 2000, Desselonger Ross, 28, admitted to committing three of the nine reported attacks on school girls, Local 4 reported.

Detectives discovered that the assaults stopped during a time when the suspect was in prison for a parole violation, and that the attacks continued once he was released, Local 4 reported.

Police said that the suspect's DNA matched at least six crimes dating back to 1998. Detectives are looking into whether the man might be responsible for others.

Officers are waiting for victims to identify the suspect in a lineup before commenting on the case further, Local 4 reported.