MESA, Ariz. -- A man who police believe attacked four women in Mesa and Phoenix, killing two of them, is ordered held without bond.

Trent Benson, 36, was booked on two counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and violent sexual assault.

READ: 5/5/08 - DNA In Sex Assault Linked To 2 Unsolved Deaths

Benson has a previous criminal history, said Mesa Police Chief George Gascon.

Officers said Benson has been arrested in the past for picking up prostitutes.

Police said they had Benson under surveillance for about a day before arresting him Wednesday afternoon. Authorities said they used DNA evidence to connect him to the attacks.

He owns the Water and Ice store at Lindsey and University Drive in Mesa.

The public can "relax to some extent. We feel very comfortable that we have the suspect," Gascon said.

Police worked into the early morning hours Thursday at the man's apartment searching for additional evidence. Until his arrest, Benson lived there where he was raising his 7-year-old son as a single parent.

On Monday, police forensically linked the rape and severe beating of a woman in Phoenix late last year to the Mesa crimes. On Nov. 4, a 35-year-old woman was kidnapped, taken to an alley in central Phoenix, raped and beaten.

Phoenix police Detective Reuben Gonzales said investigators believe the woman was left in the alley for dead. She survived with injuries to her head, neck and torso, Gonzales said, adding that it was unclear whether the assailant used fists or a weapon.

DNA evidence connected the assault to the rape and killing of a woman in Mesa in 2004 and of another in 2007, and to another rape in Mesa in which the woman survived, Mesa police Detective Steve Berry said.

"The naked body of Karen Jane Campbell, 44, was found on a Mesa roadway in October 2007. The partially clothed body of Alisa Marie Beck, 21, was found in an alley in 2004 about five miles from where Campbell's body was left. Both had been strangled.

Police connected the killings in December using DNA evidence. At the time, they said both women had a history of drug abuse and prostitution, and that neither had a home.

Earlier this month, police used DNA evidence again to connect the killings to a sexual assault in which a 47-year-old woman was taken to a Mesa home in August and raped before she escaped and flagged down a cab.