PPD holds mtg. on Center City rapist

Steps away from the downtown area preyed upon by a serial rapist, over 1,000 Philadelphia residents gathered last night for a public meeting to learn more about the man police believe killed Wharton doctoral student Shannon Schieber in May 1998 and raped at least three other women over the past three years. The Philadelphia Police Department called the 90-minute meeting to give community members more information about the suspect -- who remains at large after a nearly 18-month manhunt -- and also tips on how to protect themselves from being the next victims. The suspect is believed to be targeting young, affluent women in the Rittenhouse Square area in Center City. He has been connected to the strangling death of Schieber, as well as to two rapes in 1997 and another one last month, which has sparked intense fear among women downtown. Police say they have no doubt that he will strike again. A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent gave a psychological profile of the suspect, going beyond the physical details of the composite sketch posted all over the Rittenhouse Square area. Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney spoke at the event, reassuring the mostly female crowd that police are putting their full effort into the case. He said "thousands upon thousands of detective hours" have been devoted to finding the suspect and that police will not stop searching until he is caught. Because police believe the suspect first scouted out all of his victims in Rittenhouse Square and followed them for a few days before committing the crimes, the officers encouraged people to vary their daily routes and never to take shortcuts. FBI Special Agent Jim Fitzgerald, who profiled the suspect based on Philadelphia Police information and interviews conducted with imprisoned serial rapists, said the suspect is a thin, well-built man who blends into the Rittenhouse Square community and most likely lives alone or with his parents. The suspect fits the profile of the most common stranger-to-stranger rapist -- assaulting women not for sex, but to assert his own power and control. He is also what police call a "gentleman" rapist -- one who talks to his victims after the assault, apologizing and offering advice as to how they can avoid being raped again. Although some serial rapists tend to target victims who look similar, Fitzgerald said the four victims did not share any major physical traits but were all relatively young and of the same social status. Fitzgerald also said he believes Schieber's murder was unplanned -- that the suspect meant to rape her but something went wrong, leading him to strangle her. Police initially believed it was a robbery attempt but later were able to connect it with DNA evidence to the prior rapes. Fitzgerald also speculated that the reason for the 16-month gap in activity between Schieber's murder and last month's rape was because he was unnerved by Schieber's unplanned murder. Police have also said the rapist has probably committed other assaults that went unreported. A 24-year-old female who lives in the area and attended the meeting said although she appreciated the effort put into planning the meeting, she was displeased by the lack of specific information about the suspect's previous crimes. "There's no detail, [the police] are protecting themselves" from liability rather than putting the safety of the community first, she said. Another area resident also said she had expected more details. "I was hoping for more specific facts about what [the suspect] does [and] about how he got in the windows," she said.