Philadelphia Daily News
Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Friends say he hardly fits profile of Center City Rapist

They describe suspect as quiet, shy, even 'sweet'

By SCOTT FLANDER,
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

TROY GRAVES was definitely not an alpha male.

When other guys were talking loudly, back and forth, about women, about guy stuff, he'd stay quiet, in the background.

He was shy, socially awkward, a soft talker.

Even a little effeminate. When he reported for basic training in the Air Force, his fellow recruits at first thought he was gay. They noticed his slight lisp, and there was just something in the way he acted.

Graves had an odd walk, too. He walked on his toes, slightly pitched forward. It made him look a little goofy.

Hardly the profile you'd imagine for a rapist. Particularly not the one who terrorized Center City Philadelphia, and later Fort Collins, Colo.

And yet Graves is the prime suspect in Philadelphia, say authorities, and he's been arrested in Colorado.

"That's unbelievable," his mother, Michal B. Graves, told the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday. "Troy is happily married. He's on active duty with the Air Force. They have tracked all this back to him?"

Others who knew Graves can't quite believe it either. He was such a sweet guy.

But then again, maybe the Center City rapist thought he was too, in his own twisted way.

He'd stalk the women, then slip into their apartments, always without a weapon. He'd talk to them softly, gently, even while he was raping them. It was almost pillow talk. Sweet talk.

These kind of rapists, experts say, are out to prove their masculinity. They see the women as "dates," not victims.

Around men, at least, Graves wasn't out to prove anything, said Ryan Dakdduk, who went through basic training with him at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio in 1999. No matter what, he remained pretty low-key.

For the first couple of weeks, many of the recruits in his "flight," or group, picked on Graves, calling him names like "faggot."

"He didn't take it too well," said Dakdduk, of Trenton. "He kind of took it to heart."

After a while though, "we realized he wasn't gay," and Graves became accepted into the group, and even well-liked.

More than anyone else in his "flight" of 60 or so recruits, Graves would help others who had problems getting ready for inspection. He'd arrange his clothes in military order, then start helping others who couldn't get the hang of it.

He'd make his bed, then start making others'. He'd even clean late into the night.

"We'd all be asleep, and he'd be up cleaning, getting ready for inspection, so the flight wouldn't get into trouble," said Dakdduk, who slept two bunks away from Graves'.

There were a few strange things about him, though.

While everyone else brought one bag to basic training, Graves brought at least 10 - "all his worldly possessions."

Graves said he had no home to go back to, said Dakdduk. He told his fellow recruits that he had been a bank teller in Philadelphia, and joined the Air Force because he was deep in debt and hoped time in the military could help straighten him out financially.

"He wanted to start a new life," said Dakdduk.

Graves rarely talked about women - at least not the way other guys did.

"The rest of us talked about girls a lot," said Dakdduk. "Maybe once he talked about a girl he had been seeing in Philadelphia."

Once Graves moved to Colorado, he married, authorities said.

His mother said her son was painfully shy growing up, had several longterm relationships with women and adores his wife, Amy.

Graves father, she told the Inquirer, was a drug addict; his parents divorced when he was 13, and he dropped out of high school in 1989.

"Troy is a nice-looking, very quiet young man," his mother said. ". . .He was pretty much liked growing up, but he tends to be a loner as I am."

Chuck Williams, who lived next door to Graves in an apartment building at 41st and Baltimore in West Philly, described Graves as soft spoken and "unsure of himself socially."

Williams found this awkwardness likable.

"He was a sweet kind of guy," said Williams. "He wasn't cocky or arrogant."

Graves rarely had visitors - "maybe once or twice he brought in a male or female" - in the year he lived there.

Graves never once talked with him about the Center City Rapist, and Williams never considered him a possibility.

"He was thin, he didn't seem that strong," said Williams. "He didn't look like the kind of person who would be out at night."

Graves also lived for a time in an apartment at 10th and Pine.

"I thought he was an OK guy," said neighbor Francis DiFronzo. "He was always pleasant. Nothing unusual about him."

In late 1999, a few months after Graves moved out, an investigator for the armed forces came by asking questions about Graves, said DiFronzo.

"He was doing a background check to make sure he was stable," said DiFronzo.

By then, Graves was in the Air Force, training to be a nuclear- missile technician, said Dakdduk. *

Staff writer Rose DeWolf contributed to this report.