Philadelphia police identified the so-called Fairmount Park rapist as 46-year-old Edwin Diaz. (Philadelphia Police Department)
Dubbed the Fairmount Park rapist, a man who Philadelphia police say is a suspect in a string of sexual assaults and a murder from two decades ago is behind bars after he allegedly attacked several people with a machete while riding a bicycle last month.
Police investigated several attacks at Pennypack Park on the city’s northeast side on Nov. 22, Nov. 24 and Nov. 25. In each incident, a man with a machete on a bicycle attacked people, Interim Police Commissioner John Stanford said at a press conference Tuesday. On Sunday, 911 calls came in about a man riding a bike with a machete. Officers rushed to the scene and arrested 46-year-old Edwin Diaz.
Stanford said Diaz’s DNA tied him to two rapes, an attempted rape and a murder that involved a rape in 2003 in the area of Fairmount Park, and another attack in 2007 near Pennypack Park.
“These are the type of cases that haunt you until you’re able to bring some closure to it,” Stanford said.
On April 30, 2003, a 21-year-old woman went out for a jog around 10:30 p.m. in the park and a man riding a purple metallic bicycle attacked and raped her, cops say. Detectives collected DNA evidence. Then on July 13, 2003, police received word of a missing medical student, 30-year-old Kelly Park. Park went for a run and vanished. Cops discovered her body four days later in a wooded area under some dirt, leaves and rocks. She had been raped and strangled.
The rapist tried to strike again on Oct. 25, 2003. This time a jogger, a 37-year-old woman, fought off her attacker as he tried to drag her to a riverbed. Police say she gave a good description and an artist developed a sketch.
Four years later, the rapist attacked another woman on Aug. 11, 2007, this time near Pennypack Park. Through DNA evidence, police determined all four attacks were perpetrated by the same man.
The case went cold for several years but advancements in DNA technology and law enforcement access to genealogy sites gave cops avenues to travel. DNA analysis allowed police in 2021 to develop a composite of what the suspect may look like. Investigators started scouring genealogy sites to find family members — and, ultimately, they did.
Ryan Gallagher, the lab manager for Philadelphia police, said detectives identified Diaz as a suspect in April. But police were unable to find him and weren’t even sure if he was still alive.
That changed when police arrested Diaz on Sunday.
So far, Diaz is only facing charges for one of the machete attacks from last month, but prosecutors say they expect to file murder charges against him soon in Park’s death. He’s now in jail without bond.
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