Fairmount Park rapist strikes again
Police say the man who assaulted a woman in Pennypack Park is the same man who has been sought since 2003.
The Fairmount Park rapist, who assaulted two women and raped and killed a third in 2003, has been linked through DNA to yet another rape - four years after his last attack and this time in another part of the city, Philadelphia police detectives said yesterday.
"He's a very sick individual," said Chief of Detectives Keith R. Sadler at a news conference outside Police Headquarters. "Obviously, we're very concerned. . . . We've never stopped working on this case."
Leaders of women's organization were outraged as well at the reemergence of the assailant, whose latest victim was assaulted in Pennypack Park in Northeast Philadelphia last month.
"If this is true, we do hope police catch this man," said Jill Maier, director of rape-counseling services for Women Organized Against Rape. "He has caused the women in the city enough pain. Anybody walking the streets needs to be aware. . . . Don't be talking on your cell phones, and take off your iPod."
Sadler and Capt. John Darby of the Special Crimes Unit said that DNA evidence linked the Aug. 11 rape of a 29-year-old woman to the other attacks, which occurred from April to October 2003.
In the latest attack, the woman, walking alone in an exercise area of Pennypack Park, was assaulted by a man she identified as a 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-7 Latino about 25 years old.
He was said to be muscular and dark-complected, with a short jaw line, a goatee, and a bushy eyebrow. He wore a sky-blue baseball jersey, white shorts, and a gold chain.
Like the latest victim, the other women attacked were alone at the time of their assaults, which occurred within a one-mile radius in Fairmount Park.
Last month's attack, which occurred while the victim was wearing a Walkman, took place eight to nine miles northeast of that area.
"He is taking the opportunity of females alone, some carrying iPods or Walkmans," Sadler said.
Sadler and Darby said they could only speculate about why the killer-rapist had taken so long to reemerge. Sadler said that profiles of serial rapists indicate some may disappear for as long as 10 years before returning to their crimes.
One theory, said Sadler, was that the assailant had possibly returned from Puerto Rico. Since 2003, police have said that he might have relatives there and that the FBI there had been alerted.
Sadler added that, as had been done before, the Latino community would be blanketed with flyers showing a composite sketch of the suspect.
On July 13, 2003, the attacker raped and strangled Rebecca Park, 30, a fourth-year medical student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, police say.
She was last seen alive earlier that day and had told her boyfriend over the phone that she was going for a jog. She usually ran on a trail through woods near her home on Lankenau Avenue in the River Park section of the city.
Four days later, her battered body was found in a shallow grave covered with leaves about 30 feet from a trail near Conshohocken Avenue. She was found clothed in only a sports bra and running shoes, police said.