Police explore link between abductions

Woman robbed last Tuesday Police continued the search last night for a man who sexually assaulted and shot a College of General Studies student Wednesday night after abducting her from a parking lot near the Law School. And police are investigating the possibility that the same man also may have abducted a woman the night before at 36th and Ludlow streets, three blocks away. "It's a possibility at this point, and I'm sure everything is being considered," Philadelphia police spokesperson Ben Frazier said. "It's premature to make that judgment in the investigation, but it's certainly open as a possibility," said University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich. "Whenever you do an investigation, you keep open all possibilities." In Tuesday's incident, a 55-year-old former University instructor was abducted just before 9 p.m. and forced by the assailant to drive to North Philadelphia, where he attempted to use her MAC card, police said. He then forced her to drive him to 12th Street and Girard Avenue, one block from where the woman abducted Wednesday night was sexually assaulted, police said. While in the car, the man robbed her of $50. He fled into a North Philadelphia public housing development, Frazier said. The assailant was described as about 30 years old, 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, wearing a black leather coat, light green pants and wielding a revolver. The victim in Wednesday's incident, a 25-year-old Wistar Institute employee, was abducted in the parking lot across from the Law School while walking to her car after class, police said. She was sexually assaulted in an abandoned house in North Philadelphia and shot in the face, police said. The man asked if she was all right, police said, but the woman did not answer and played dead until he left. The woman was not more seriously injured by the bullet, because the it only grazed her cheek, police said. She was treated at Thomas Jefferson Hospital and released. Kuprevich originally called the assault a rape, but said last night it was technically aggravated indecent assault and would be charged as such. Both incidents occurred in close proximity to each other and campus. Tuesday's incident occurred one block from the King's Court/English House dormitory. Wednesday's incident occurred in a parking lot across the street from the Law School, near Hill Field.