PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Authorities believe the man accused of stalking and raping several women in the Philadelphia area last week preyed on others in at least seven more states.
Kevin Bennett, 28, was arrested in Indianapolis on Saturday. Police officers found guns and drugs in his car.
"He was arrested with possession of two firearms, one of which matches the description in these crimes," said Branwen McNabb, a prosecutor in the family violence and sexual assault unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
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Bennett is accused of stalking women working in Philadelphia-area strip clubs and waiting like a predator to follow them home. Authorities say he raped three of them, one of whom didn’t work in a club, and followed at least three others to the suburbs. They say he hit one woman in the head in a King of Prussia hotel.
McNabb credits detectives at the Philadelphia Police Department's special victims unit, saying they quickly recognized a pattern of behavior and pulled surveillance video from the areas where the assaults were reported.
"Investigators were able to identify Kevin Bennett as the suspect and determined that a 2010 grey Dodge Charger was registered to him in Indiana," said McNabb.
Police believe he has committed the same crimes in at least eight states, including Alabama, Tennessee and Indiana, where he lives.
"I think they were all sexual offenses, rapes. Rapes and robberies. Pretty much the [method] was exactly the same," said Capt. Mark Burgmann.
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There is no national registry or database for potential serial rapists to help states recognize such patterns. It can take forensic analysts a while to develop a DNA profile and match it to one in a national database system known as CODIS.
Instead, the FBI issues a bulletin to police departments throughout the country, notifying them of who they’re looking for and why.
"The FBI violent crimes task force in [Indianapolis] had a surveillance set up, and I think he was surprised," Burgmann said.
McNabb said the District Attorney's Office plans to charge him with several counts of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, burglary, robbery, stalking, violation of the uniform firearms act and related offenses.
Bennett remains in an Indianapolis jail, awaiting extradition to Philadelphia.
He was scheduled for an extradition hearing on Tuesday at 1 p.m. He will either waive the process of being brought back to Philadelphia, or he will fight it, which is a much longer process involving state authorities.