Cops: 2 women raped, robbed near North Broad after leaving Rittenhouse Square area

In two instances in the past two weeks, women returning home alone from a night out in the Rittenhouse Square area have been raped, robbed and assaulted by a stranger after they were dropped off by cabs along the North Broad Street corridor, police said.

"We believe that the same perpetrator may have perpetrated both of these crimes," said Special Victims Unit Capt. John Darby.

In the latest case, a 26-year-old woman coming home from a bar at 17th and Chancellor streets about 2 a.m. Saturday had just left a taxi at Brandywine Street near 16th in the city's Spring Garden section and was walking to her door when a man came up behind her, punched her in the head and demanded money, police said.

In response, the woman punched the man and ran, but he chased her, caught up to her, punched her in the face and raped her, according to police. After stealing $100 from her purse, the man fled east toward Broad Street, police said.

About 4 a.m. on Nov. 14, a 25-year-old woman who had taken a taxi from a bar at 20th and Walnut streets to Broad and Fairmount Avenue was walking north on Broad when a stranger came up to her and said he'd show her a shortcut home, according to police.

Instead, the man choked her and raped her in a vacant lot on Flora Street near Carlisle, in North Philadelphia, before stealing $283 from her, police said.

Darby said that no weapon was used in either case but that both women described the man as "very strong."

"His weapon was his fists; it was his hands," Darby said. "From both complainants, he was extremely violent in his attack."

The women offered similar descriptions of their attacker. Both said he was a black man, about 5 feet 8, in his mid-20s to early 30s. They said he had a beard, and one said he had called himself "Darryl" or "Derrick."

Police said they are investigating whether the women had been followed home or whether the cabdrivers may have set them up.

Darby said police are also looking into whether the cases could be related to four reported assaults in Kensington in the past month. All of the victims in those cases were choked at abandoned properties. Two did not survive.

"Just the fact that this one young victim was choked, basically to the point where she said, 'I passed out a couple times,' that does not escape us," Darby said. "We've already discussed that possibility. We'll use any physical evidence or forensic evidence we've recovered."

Darby declined to say whether rape examinations had been conducted on the victims.

The attacker in the Kensington cases was described as a slender black or Latino man in his late 20s or early 30s, between 5 feet 8 and 6 feet, with a goatee and closely cropped hair.

Darby cautioned women who might be taking cabs home from downtown.

"If they're going to take a cab, buddy up, it's cheaper . . . or get somebody to give you a ride home," he said.

Anyone with information on either attack is urged to call the Special Victims Unit at 215-685-3251.