After Philadelphia police arrested 46-year-old Elias Diaz in connection to two slashings, prosecutors announced they charged him with three sexual assaults and a murder.
Diaz, also known as the “Fairmount Park rapist,” was arrested and charged with murder, rape and related charges for various alleged crimes including the rape and murder of 30-year-old Rebecca Park in Fairmount Park back in 2003, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Diaz was arrested Dec. 17 in connection with the slashing of a bicyclist and walker in November, as well as an alleged attempted slashing of another walker, all on Pennypack Trail, Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) Interim Police Commissioner John M. Stanford, Jr. said at a press conference Dec. 19. Police said Diaz was allegedly armed with a machete before they arrested him and was uncooperative after. His fingerprints presumptively matched previously collected DNA, Stanford added.
Reports of attacks by a Hispanic male bicyclist on a female jogger in Apr. 2003, a missing female jogger July 2003 and an attack on another woman in Oct. 2003 appeared to be connected, PPD First Deputy Frank Vanore told reporters. Detectives found the missing jogger, Rebecca Park, dead under dirt leaves and rocks in Fairmount Park and collected DNA evidence from the scene, he said.
A 25-year-old female walker was attacked and assaulted in Aug. 2007, and officers collected DNA from the scene, Vanore added.
The 2003 cases happened in Fairmount Park while the 2007 one happened in Pennypack Park, according to NBC 10 Philadelphia. Prosecutors charged Diaz with murder, rape and several other charges in connection to Rebecca Park’s murder on Dec. 20, the outlet reported. Prosecutors reportedly charged him on Dec. 27 with three additional sexual assaults, each of them related to the incidents reported in 2003 and 2007. (RELATED: Police Charge Man In Cold Case Of Single Teen Mom Found Dead Nearly 50 Years Ago)
Advanced genetic genealogy analyses led to an investigation of familial leads all over the U.S. and in Puerto Rico until Diaz was identified in 2021, PPD forensic analyst Ryan Gallagher told reporters in the press conference. However, officers could not tell then if Diaz was still living.
Diaz had been “living off the grid” and “outrunning justice” but eventually “science outran this guy’s bicycle,” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told reporters.
Diaz was arrested for narcotics in 2007 but reportedly failed to appear in court in 2015. Police did not have his DNA on file then, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.