Philadelphia Daily News
Wednesday, October 3, 2001

Philly, Ariz. rapes not linked

By NICOLE WEISENSEE EGAN,
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Philadelphia police said yesterday that the Center City rapist was not responsible for a series of sexual attacks in Mesa, Ariz.

"The DNA does not match," said Homicide Lt. Joseph Maum, one of the lead investigators. "However, we're reaching out to as many jurisdictions as possible to see if their unsolved sexual assaults are linked to ours."

Last month, Philadelphia police announced that DNA tests had linked the Center City rapist to two attacks in Fort Collins, Colo. Officials there believe the same man attacked six women from May through August of this year, but only have DNA evidence from two of the cases.

The Center City rapist sexually assaulted six women in Philadelphia from June 1997 through August 1999. He is also suspected of killing Wharton School student Shannon Schieber in May 1998.

Philadelphia police contacted Mesa police about their serial rapist last month. He has committed six sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults from July 1999 through last Nov. 3.

It is not the only other serial rapist they have looked at, Maum said.

"We've checked one in Pittsburgh, in New Jersey and some places down South," he said. "We've had numerous comparisons and numerous rejections. Right now there are no more links."

They are checking so many other jurisdictions because of the 21-month gap between the Center City rapist's last attack here and his first attack in Fort Collins, Maum said.