Police seek witnesses in rape, abduction of Juniata woman

Police are seeking witnesses as they investigate the rape and abduction of a 28-year-old woman from Philadelphia's Juniata section, who was found bound and half-dressed in Fairmount Park.

The woman was found by several women who were driving in a car Tuesday about 5:30 p.m. at Chamonix Drive and Belmont Mansion Drive, police said.

The victim was lying in the road with her wrists and ankles bound, said Police Capt. John Darby.

Police said the woman described the attack but was unable to see the faces of her attackers.

Darby described how the attack unfolded. The woman was riding home in a car driven by a friend Monday night about 9:30 p.m. in the 3900 block of Lawndale Street in the Juniata section. They stopped and went to a store.

As they approached her residence, there was a car double-parked, blocking their path. The friend went to park the car at the end of the block.

When the woman walked toward her home, a man outside began talking to her, but she could not hear what he was saying. As she neared the front steps, a person grabbed her and pulled her clothing over her eyes.

The person then put her in a vehicle she thought was a van because it had a sliding door. She was driven from the scene. The woman told police another man and a woman helped in her abduction.

Police said the woman indicated she was taken to what she thought was a house after a long drive. Inside, she was bound to a chair by her ankles and later placed in a closet.

The woman had two cell phones on her. One was taken from her, but she was able to use one to call relatives in the Germantown section about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. She told them she had been abducted. The woman was later raped, police said.

Before she made the call, another person she knows received a phone call sometime overnight demanding $20,000 as a ransom for her return.

After being found in the park, the woman was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she was treated, police said.

Police said she described the person who raped her as a bearded, husky black male about 30 years old, wearing blue jeans and white Nike sneakers.

There were no descriptions of the other man and woman in the attack, police said.

Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the attack to call 215-686-TIPS or the Special Victims Unit at 215-685-3251 or 215-685-3252.