Elias Diaz, a man accused of attacking people with a large knife while riding on a bicycle in Philadelphia, has been charged with several high-profile unsolved sexual assaults. The 46-year-old was first charged with murder, rape, and other counts in connection to the 2003 slaying of a medical student named Rebecca Park and has now been charged in three other cold-case assaults, two that took place in Fairmount Park in 2003, and another in Pennypack Park in 2007. Diaz faces charges that include rape, attempted rape, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, aggravated assault, and related offenses.
Diaz was initially ordered to be held without bail in Park’s slaying pending a preliminary hearing on January 8. He’d been detained on aggravated assault and other charges related to the late November and early December attacks, where he used a machete-type knife against people on the Pennypack Park trail. The Defender Association of Philadelphia, who are representing Diaz in both the 2003 case and the recent attacks, have refused to comment on any current or potential future charges.
According to police, Diaz’s DNA appears to connect him to the 2003 strangulation killing of Park, and possibly several other sexual assaults in Fairmount Park. Along with Park’s slaying, the crime was linked to the rape of a 21-year-old jogger in April of that year and an attempted rape in October.
In 2007, a 29-year-old woman walking on a path in Pennypack Park was sexually assaulted and robbed, police said. The DNA analysis in 2021 was able to create composite sketches of the suspect, which led police to a man named Elias Diaz, who had previous contact with law enforcement but wasn’t identified until his DNA was obtained after his arrest in the recent assaults.
The spate of cold-case sexual assaults that Elias Diaz has now been charged with have remained unsolved for years, leaving victims and their loved ones without closure. While the charges against Diaz are a major development in these cases, the investigation is ongoing. Diaz has yet to have his day in court and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Philadelphia’s Interim Police Commissioner John Stanford Jr. has commended his department’s investigators for their diligence and persistence in pursuing leads to solve these cases. The victims and their families have long been waiting for justice, and the authorities will strive to ensure that justice is served. Diaz is currently being held in custody without bail and awaits his next court hearing.
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