Man arrested this month in connection with Philadelphia cold case killing now charged in 3 other rape cases
By Danny Freeman, CNN
(CNN) — A man arrested earlier this month in connection with two recent machete attacks and the rape and killing of a woman in a Philadelphia park 20 years ago has been charged in three more rape cases, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Elias Diaz, 46, has now been charged with the rapes of two women and the attempted rape of another: He is accused of raping a jogger in April 2003, attempting to rape a jogger in October 2003 and raping another woman in August 2007, according to Philadelphia police and prosecutors.
The announcement Wednesday came over a week after Diaz was arrested in connection with the November machete attacks in Pennypack Park. Diaz refused to provide his name when he was arrested, officials said, but he was identified through his fingerprints.
Police also collected his DNA – evidence authorities said linked him to the 2003 killing of 30-year-old Rebecca Park, whose body was found in a wooded area of Fairmount Park. Diaz was charged with murder, rape, aggravated indecent assault and possession of an instrument of crime, among other charges, in Park’s slaying, prosecutors said last week. He also faces charges of aggravated assault in the machete attacks.
In a statement, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said that “further investigation including DNA evidence” had connected Diaz to the three long-ago cases. All three attacks in 2003, including Park’s killing, occurred in Fairmount Park, while the 2007 attack and the assaults last month took place in and around Pennypack Park.
CNN has reached out for comment from the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which is representing Diaz.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is asking that Diaz be held without bail in the three new cases, though he was already being held without bail for the murder charge announced last week.
CNN’s Celina Tebor contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
