Massachusetts man accused of abducting stepdaughter, fatally shooting her before turning gun on himself

ACTON – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Acton Chief of Police James Cogan have confirmed the ongoing investigation into an apparent murder-suicide that occurred today in Acton.

Shortly after 4:00 p.m. Acton Police received a call reporting an apparent abduction of a 16-year-old female by her stepfather, Juliano Santana, 49. Police contacted the suspect’s probation officer who was able to determine his location based on a GPS monitoring device that had been placed on him as a result of a pending case in Middlesex Superior Court.

Acton police responded to a parking lot on Great Road, outside the victim’s residence. There they located the suspect and the victim dead from apparent gunshot wounds in the suspect’s vehicle.  The subsequent investigation suggests that Santana abducted the victim as she was walking on Great Road near her residence after school and later shot her and then himself.

The victim in this case is the same victim in the pending criminal case against the suspect.

On September 7, 2021, the victim reported that Santana had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. Santana was arrested and arraigned that same day on 6 counts of aggravated rape of a child.  At that arraignment in Malden District Court bail was set at $30,000 with conditions that he be placed on a GPS monitoring device, that he stay away from and have no contact with the victim and that he have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18.  The victim also had an active restraining order against the suspect. The trial date in this case was scheduled for July 29, 2024.

This is an active and ongoing investigation being conducted by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the District Attorney’s Office and Acton Police.