Center City rapist suspect arrested

Police in Fort Collins, Colo., have arrested a man that they say DNA evidence ties to the 1998 murder of Wharton doctoral student Shannon Schieber, as well as a string of other Center City sexual assaults in the late 1990s.

Troy Graves, 29, was taken into custody at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning as a suspect in six sexual assaults that occurred last summer near the Colorado State University campus.

Graves is being held on a $1 million bond.

Last year, investigators concluded that DNA collected in two of the Colorado crime scenes matched that gathered in the Philadelphia cases believed to be linked to the so-called Center City rapist.

In the Colorado incidents, the intruder entered apartments through an unlocked door or window during the early morning hours and, once inside, sexually assaulted the female residents, according to a statement from the Fort Collins Police.

Those incidents are eerily similar to six sexual assaults in the Rittenhouse Square area between 1997 and 1999 - including Schieber's murder. Schieber was found dead in her Rittenhouse Square apartment in May 1998 after she did not show up for a lunch date with her brother. Neighbors called police at around 3 a.m. after hearing a sounds of a struggle in her apartment, but police officers left the area after Schieber did not answer her door.

Graves once lived close to campus, near 41st Street and Baltimore Avenue.

Through DNA samples taken from Schieber's apartment, her killer was linked to five other sexual assaults in the area. Police began searching for one man - the attacker dubbed the Center City rapist.

In the Fort Collins incidents, Graves is being charged with six counts of first-degree burglary, four counts of first-degree sexual assault, and two counts of unlawful sexual contact.

Graves has yet to be charged with the Schieber murder or any of the other Philadelphia attacks.

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