PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Authorities believe Pennypack Trail slashing suspect Elias Diaz, arrested this week, is the same man who raped and murdered Rebecca Park in Fairmount Park in 2003, and raped two others.
Police made the stunning announcement Tuesday at a press briefing with interim Commissioner John Stanford and several investigators, including retired Capt. John Darby, who led the Special Victims Unit and the original investigation into the "Fairmount Park Rapist" case that terrified the city for many years.
On Nov. 22, around 8:15 a.m., police said, a man on a bike slashed a jogger on Pennypack Trail with a large machete. Two days later, a similar attack was reported. Then on Sunday, an 8th District police officer was called out to Pennypack Trail for reports of a man with a machete.
“The officer is able to stop the male on the bike, able to secure the machete and ultimately get the male in custody,” Stanford said.
Stanford says he was fingerprinted — that’s how they identified 46-year-old Diaz — and, as part of the investigation, they collected DNA, which they say led to a break in one of the most notorious cases in the city’s history.
“These are the type of cases that haunt you until you’re able to bring some closure to it,” Stanford said.
Stanford said Tuesday police are awaiting final DNA results, but “everything that we have at this point leads us to believe that Mr. Diaz is also involved or a person of interest regarding the murder of Rebecca Park, which occurred in July of 2003.”
Park, a 30-year-old medical student, went for a run and never returned home. Days later, her body was found in the woods in West Fairmount Park. She had been raped and strangled.
Composite images of suspect
A forensic artist in 2021 created age-progression images showing what the Fairmount Park Rapist may look like, using DNA analysis to predict his physical characteristics.
Prior sketches depicted the suspect in 2003, the year of the first known attack, and 2007, the year of the last known attack.
Diaz’s mugshot looks much like those renderings of the Fairmount Park Rapist. And Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore says Diaz’s pattern of behavior is familiar.
“I mean, his behavior is the same and so, obviously, it made us stop and look at this individual,” said Vanore.
For the last year and a half, says Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore, investigators have been using genealogical mapping to identify the Fairmount Park Rapist.
“His name came up,” Vanore said. “However, we had no idea if he was still living.”
He says Diaz’s family had told investigators they thought he was dead.
“We received some information that he was living in the park there,” Vanore said. “Crime scene investigators and detectives from Northeast Detectives went out with special victims. We were able to find an area today that we believe he was using as a shelter.”
Inside a tent there, sources say, police found two knives.
Authorities say the genealogical DNA links Diaz to Park’s 2003 murder — and the rape of a woman jogging along Kelly Drive a few months earlier in April, and another attempted attack near West River Drive in October of that year. Early DNA technology linked the Fairmount Park assaults to a single suspect.
Then in August of 2007, police say, the same suspect raped another woman in Pennypack Park.
🎧 Gone Cold: Fairmount Park Rapist
Listen here to in-depth coverage of the Fairmount Park Rapist in this 2021 episode of KYW's original podcast Gone Cold:
Officials would not say if Diaz has been interviewed, or if he has marks on his chest like the ones depicted in posters, but they believe there could be more victims. Police encourage anyone who believes they were attacked by this man — or who witnessed such an attack — to give them a call.
Diaz has a prior 2007 drug offense and was picked up again for a summary offense involving alcohol in 2015 — but otherwise, authorities say he’s been keeping a low profile.