SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- A state corrections officer has been charged in a series of rapes in Springfield that occurred over the last eight years.

Bobbie McGhee, 46, of Springfield, was arrested on a total of 15 counts in five rapes. The charges include multiple counts of rape, sodomy and burglary. He has been suspended from his duties at the Ozark Correctional Center in Fordland, where he has worked since 2006.

Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman Dean Watson said state law allows corrections officials to suspend an employee without pay if he or she is charged with a criminal offense. The suspension is pending an investigation or trial.

Police said the rapes occurred at hotels and apartments. The earliest occurred in April 2000 and the most recent Oct. 8.

McGhee also is a suspect in a rape in Fulton.

Police said they linked McGhee to the rapes through DNA he left on eating utensils that an investigator collected at a restaurant.

McGhee, who was arrested Wednesday, is being held in the Greene County jail. Bond has not been set.

"His name surfaced as a person of interest, but we had no DNA from him," Springfield Police Chief Lynn Rowe told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Once we worked and followed him and obtained samples of his DNA from things he used -- specifically the utensils -- we got the match."

Rowe said investigators worked backward from there to connect the cases.

Before the DNA match, there wasn't enough to link the rapes to each other, he said. Officers noticed some similarities, such as that some of the victims' front doors were missing peepholes. But there were disimilarities too, Rowe said.

"There wasn't really an identifiable M.O. that led us to believe right away that we were dealing with the same person," Rowe said. "In the end, it was the DNA that allowed him to be charged."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)