December 27, 2023
Source/Philadelphia Police
Elias Diaz, 46, has been charged with four sexual assaults — including one homicide — that happened between 2003-2007.
The man police identified last week as a suspect in a series of decades-old rape investigations at Fairmount Park has been charged in connection to three additional cases that have been unsolved, authorities said.
Elias Diaz, 46, was charged last week in the rape and killing of Rebecca Park, a medical student who was found dead at Fairmount Park in 2003. Diaz had been arrested and charged earlier this month for a series of machete attacks at Pennypack Park in November. While in custody, police said they realized Diaz fit the profile of a suspect in the "Fairmount Park rapist" investigation.
On Wednesday, police said Diaz has now been charged with three other sexual assaults that happened between 2003-2007. Two of them also occurred in Fairmount Park and the third happened in Pennypack Park.
DNA evidence from those cases and the Rebecca Park investigation linked all of the sexual assaults to a single suspect, police said. Investigators had identified Diaz in the spring using ancestry records, but police were unable to locate him for months because they didn't know where he lived or whether he was still alive. Police said Diaz recently had been living in Pennypack Park.
The three additional sexual assaults Diaz is charged with include a reported attack in April 2003, when he allegedly raped a 21-year-old woman at Fairmount Park. Diaz allegedly raped and killed Park, 30, three months later while she was out jogging. Then in October of that year, Diaz allegedly tried to rape a 37-year-old woman at knifepoint near the Falls Bridge, but police said the woman managed to escape.
Four years later, Diaz allegedly raped a 29-year-old woman at Pennypack Park, according to police.
Police said they also are exploring whether Diaz may be connected to any other unsolved cases that fit a similar pattern.
The upgraded charges filed against Diaz on Wednesday include rape, attempted rape, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, aggravated assault and related offenses.
