REBECCA PARK'S parents, still reeling from the brutal rape and strangulation of their 30-year-old daughter in Fairmount Park, received a call on Monday from a mother who understands the depths of their grief.
"I called the mother and father," said Vicki Schieber, whose daughter, Shannon, was strangled by Center City Rapist Troy Graves five years ago. "I cried on the phone with [the father] for a half an hour."
Both families are upset because Park's killer had committed another rape in the area on April 30 - a rape that was never reported to the public. Before Schieber's 1998 slaying, the police had not warned the public about other recent sexual assaults in the vicinity of where she lived.
"In both cases, police knew someone had been assaulted in the same area and didn't notify the community," Schieber said.
Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson met with the Special Victims Unit on Monday to discuss the lack of disclosure of the April rape. Officials said future sexual assaults will be evaluated individually to see if they should be released to the public.
Park's brother said he, too, was troubled by the news.
"I am disappointed and surprised that the police didn't make the information public," said Rudy Park. "What I get from them is that the park is so big and there are so many crimes, they can't report them. But I don't think that's true."
Rebecca Park, a fourth year medical student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, was last seen July 13. About 5 p.m. she told her boyfriend over the phone that she was going for a jog. She usually ran on a trail through some woods near her home on Lankenau Avenue in the River Park section of West Philadelphia.
On July 17, her battered body was found in a shallow grave covered with leaves about 30 feet from a trail near Conshohocken Avenue. She was wearing only a sports bra and running shoes, police said.
Police say Park's killer is a Latino man in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5-foot-8 and of medium build. They say he speaks broken English and may be riding a dark colored bicycle.
Last week, Park's killer was linked by DNA to an April 30 rape on Kelly Drive near Fountain Green in Fairmount Park.
According to police records, there were three rapes so far this year in the 92nd Police District, which encompasses much of Fairmount Park. In 2002, there were seven and in 2001 there were nine. A few of the attacks appear to have been reported by police, according to newspaper records.
Rudy Park, 32, said he wasn't sure if the family would take legal action against police or the city. His parents, Sung and Victoria, of Olney, Md., are just trying to come to grips with their grief.
But Vicki Schieber, who lives not far from the Parks in Chevy Chase, said she had told Sung Park about her family's ongoing lawsuit.
Vicki and her husband, Sylvester Schieber, have filed a civil lawsuit against the city, which will go to trial in December. They say that the practice of not reporting rapes contributed to her death.
"There will be a very high-profile trial," Vicki Schieber said. "We have a long way to go."
The Schiebers have argued that had the previous rapes been better publicized then two officers who went to her door after a 911 call on the night of her death would have tried harder to save her.
Instead, the officers knocked on the door and left. And Schieber was found dead the following day.
In February, an appeals court dismissed the officers as defendants in the case.
A meeting was held in Park's neighborhood last night, where residents talked about their safety concerns after her slaying.
