Philadelphia Daily News
Monday, November 26, 2001
Copwork gaps aid Center City stalker
Different DNA tests and statutes of limitations are obstacles in catching rapist
By NICOLE WEISENSEE EGAN,
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
HE STALKS attractive young women, like a hunter tracking prey. When the time comes to attack, he slithers through an unlocked door or window. He creeps into his victim's bedroom and presses his face close.
He rapes her, then speaks softly, sometimes giving advice on how not to fall victim again to somebody like him.
That's how Philadelphia's Center City rapist has been committing sex crimes since at least 1997. It's how he sexually assaulted five women here and killed Wharton School scholar Shannon Schieber. It's how he notched six more victims in Fort Collins, Colo.
And it's what he may be doing in some other city right now.
So why has Philadelphia's most-wanted criminal been free to rape his way across America? Why don't police departments everywhere know the rapist's face and the pattern of his serial crimes? Why can't the latest DNA technology allow cops to find where he's moved and hunt him down?
The answers reveal disturbing gaps in America's patchwork of local police departments - gaps perfectly exploited by cunning, rootless predators like Center City's stalker.
DNA testing, one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern police science, is haphazard and unstandardized across America, making it impossible for many police departments to share DNA information on crimes and suspects. Philadelphia police DNA results couldn't be compared to FBI results or to Fort Collins, Colo., results without special testing.
The nature of the Center City rapist also has kept him at least a step ahead of the police. Though he might sound like an unusual breed of criminal, he's not. Men using rape techniques much like the stalker's trademark pillow talk have attacked multiple victims in at least four states. Law enforcement experts describe them as "power-reassurance" rapists.
Moreover, serial rapists are perhaps the brainiest kind of criminal - and the hardest to catch. They work alone and they don't brag. If cops get close, the rapists move. They often outrun state statutes of limitations on rape; Pennsylvania's is five years, although legislation is in the works to extend or eliminate that.
Police consider DNA tests crucial to catching the Center City rapist. The tests can reliably match hair, semen or other biological evidence left at a crime scene to a person.
In some states, authorities have established DNA databases containing information about criminals and crimes. The Philadelphia Police Department has had its own DNA database since the mid-1990s, police said.
But there's no national standard for these databases. The FBI has a national database, but few police agencies have put their DNA data into it.
Some police departments do no DNA testing at all on unsolved rapes.
"I think in the future, if someone rapes someone in Colorado and here, we can match the DNA samples up pretty quickly," said Philadelphia Deputy Commissioner Charlie Brennan. "You can't do that now. DNA testing is very disjointed across the United States because there are different types of DNA testing. We do one kind. The FBI does another and they can't be compared to each other."
Police Commissioner John Timoney thinks the federal government should enact national standards.
Cops linked the stalker's crimes in Philadelphia to the Fort Collins rape spree by an old-fashioned teletype message sent in August by the Colorado cops to police departments across the nation.
"The only reason we found this guy out in Colorado is because they sent out an all-points bulletin," Timoney said. "One of our employees who reads these . . .saw it and sent it to the Special Victims Unit and someone from there took the effort to make a phone call.
"It was as much luck as it was hard work," said the commissioner. "That was a system that depended on two people actually doing their jobs."
Even veteran investigators in a big city like Philadelphia can be caught unaware when a serial rapist begins his spree. The Center City rapist's early crimes here weren't linked until after he murdered Shannon Schieber in 1998.
It turned out that identifying the Center City rapist as a serial rapist didn't help cops catch him.
Detectives trying to link him to other crime sprees have tracked down hundreds of false leads and false hopes in other states.
"These guys are so similar in their behavior that there's a tendency to think it could be your guy," said Gregg McCrary, a retired FBI agent who worked in the behavioral profiling unit for 10 years. "That's why it's so important to have the DNA evidence."
Last month, DNA evidence cleared the Center City rapist in six sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults in Mesa and Gilbert, Ariz.
It's not always that easy. Many police departments still don't take DNA samples for unsolved stranger rapes, experts say. Philadelphia started doing it in 1998 under Timoney's direction - after Shannon Schieber's slaying.
Power-reassurance rapists - men with techniques like a stalker - have attacked multiple victims in Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Florida and Arizona.
The prevalence of the pattern is another challenge to cops here and in Fort Collins as they hunt down the rapist.
Detectives hunting the sex killer have received thousands of tips, spoken to 35 other police agencies about unsolved sexual assaults and interviewed 235 potential suspects since the link between the two sets of crimes was established, cops in Fort Collins said.
"We're still reaching out to people," said Philadelphia Homicide Lt. Joseph Maum, who is coordinating the probe. "We just talked to California. Anytime we get a lead, we're exchanging all the information we can."
Another challenge to cops is the insidious way the stalker and other power-reassurance rapists commit their crimes.
When you think about a serial rapist, you probably don't think of someone who engages in pillow talk and, other than the rape itself, uses no force and no weapon.
That's why many experts think many victims of power-reassurance rapists often don't report the crimes to police.
"Victims have been conditioned to believe the only type of rapists are profane and violent, so when they encounter this type of rapist they don't report it," said Roy Hazelwood, a retired FBI agent who specialized in violent sexual crimes during his 16 years in the bureau's behavioral profiling unit.
"They're worried they're not going to be believed because they can't believe it," said Hazelwood, who is now vice president of The Academy Group in Manassas, Va., a group of retired FBI and Secret Service agents. "The victim can't understand this type of rape because it's so alien from what she's been led to believe is rape."
Staci Brown, spokeswoman for Philadelphia's Women Organized Against Rape, agreed.
"He's not like any rapist she's ever heard of so she's not as sure what happened to her, so she's less likely to go to the authorities," she said.
"An offender like that leaves the victim questioning herself, asking herself if this happened because it's not the mainstream scenario of how a rape happens," she said. "And if she's questioning it she's worried that law enforcement will, too."
So why do power-reassurance rapists sexually assault women while appearing to court them?
McCrary said such rapists are out to prove their masculinity. They think of their encounters as dates, not sexual assaults.
"A lot of times this will involve a fantasy that this is a date, a consensual relationship," said McCrary, who owns Behavioral Criminology International, a consulting firm in Virginia that provides expert court testimony.
Hazelwood recalled one particularly creepy case he handled when he was in the FBI.
"The rape itself took five minutes," he said. "Then he lay down beside her and talked to her for about an hour. He told her how he got in and that she should seek counseling to get closure on the rape."
After he left, the woman saw the contents of her purse spilled onto the kitchen counter.
"She called the police, but she almost didn't because what happened to her was against everything she'd been told about rape," Hazelwood said. "The next day she checked her mail and there's an envelope in there with her name on it in crayon. Inside was a note addressed to her and $400 in cash."
"Remember to get the latch fixed," the note said. "I wish you and your fiancé the best of luck. You'll never hear from me again. Love, Frank."
The rapist, Hazelwood said, took the money so he could convince his victim he was a nice guy.
"What woman has ever been told there's this kind of rapist out there?"
And he won't stop until he's caught or he dies, Hazelwood said.
If rapists like the stalker can remain uncaught for five years, they might elude prosecution altogether. The statue of limitations on rape in Pennsylvania and many other states expires in five years.
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham is trying to close that loophole in Pennsylvania. Last week, she began bringing rape charges against the DNA of criminals whose identities are still unknown. The Center City rapist's DNA has not yet been charged, said Cathie Abookire, Abraham's spokeswoman.
Abraham also is pushing legislation to extend the statute of limitations to seven years. Other Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced legislation to extend it to 12 years in cases involving DNA or eliminate it entirely.
"The district attorney's No. 1 priority has always been justice for the victims of crime," Abookire said. "We know somebody did it and this is one way of ensuring that justice will prevail, no matter how long it takes."
No woman has been raped in Fort Collins since September, when the news media reported the links between the attacks there and the Center City stalker. Investigators aren't sure where the stalker is now.
"He has not been active here in 10 weeks, but that doesn't mean he left the area," said Fort Collins police spokeswoman Rita Davis. "We know he had gaps between his crimes in Philadelphia. We don't want people here to let their guard down." *
