Accident – Death – Obituary News :

Suspected Fairmount Park Rapist Arrested and Charged with Murder and Rape

The man believed to be the notorious Fairmount Park rapist, responsible for a series of attacks on women in parks nearly two decades ago, has been arraigned on charges including murder, rape, and related offenses. Elias Diaz, 46, was taken into custody earlier this week for a separate set of crimes, slashing several people with a machete in Pennypack Park last month. However, investigators later discovered that Diaz was also the same person they had recently identified as a suspect in the unsolved rape cases from 2003 to 2007.

It was not known if Diaz was alive or where he was located until his arrest for the November assaults in Pennypack Park, during which he allegedly slashed people with a large knife while riding his bike. Upon his arrest, investigators realized that Diaz was also the suspect in the older attacks. Additional DNA samples were submitted for testing, confirming a match, and late Tuesday, prosecutors approved the additional charges.

Rebecca Park, a 30-year-old medical student, was raped and fatally strangled by Diaz in July 2003 while she was out for a jog in Pennypack Park. Her body was discovered four days later in a shallow grave, just yards away from the trail where she had gone for her run. Authorities also believe Diaz attacked three other women during the same period, including a 21-year-old raped at knifepoint near Kelly Drive and Fountain Green Road in April 2003, a 37-year-old who managed to fight him off on Martin Luther King Drive near Falls Bridge in October 2003, and a 29-year-old who was raped and robbed in Pennypack Park in 2007.

While Diaz has not yet been charged in these additional assaults, he will remain behind bars without bail for the murder case. The investigation into his crimes is ongoing.

For nearly two decades, police had only a vague description of the assailant involved in the sexual assaults. Diaz had been previously arrested twice, but for minor offenses unrelated to the rape cases. It is unclear where Diaz had been residing during the years between his alleged rape spree and the recent knife attacks. Authorities believe he had been homeless, with his most recent shelter being a makeshift one built in the woods of Pennypack Park.

At present, Diaz does not have an attorney listed in court documents for his murder case. This is a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available.

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