Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

3 held in abduction,‘heinous’ rape of Phila. girl

Three men allegedly abducted a teen girl from a Philadelphia street, and held her captive for days in Upper Darby while repeatedly sexually assaulting her, officials say.

Three men allegedly abducted a teen girl from a Philadelphia street, and held her captive for days in Upper Darby while repeatedly sexually assaulting her, officials say.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood called the attack the 15-year-old girl, "brutal and heinous."

"These are sickos, there is no doubt about it," Chitwood said.

Eddie A. Johnson, 37, of Philadelphia, and Alfred Kulah, 35, and Mortiman Kesselly, 41, both of Upper Darby were arraigned Tuesday in district court on charges of rape, sexual assault of a minor, and kidnapping to inflict terror or injury, among a long list of other similar charges.

The three are being held in Delaware County Prison on $100,000 bail each. None was able to post bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 12.

According to Chitwood and a police affidavit, the following occurred.

The girl, who lives in North Philadelphia, was walking along the 6600 block of Upland Street in Southwest Philadelphia's Kingsessing section while visiting her father about 11 p.m. Friday when a dark car pulled over.

A man emerged from the car and grabbed the girl's right arm. She fought back, so a second man emerged to help subdue her. The men forced her in the back seat of the car and held her down so she could not see where the vehicle was headed.

A third man was driving.

The girl told police the group drove for about half an hour when the car stopped. They brought her into an apartment.

There, the girl said the men took turns sodomizing and raping her until Sunday, the affidavit states. The girl cried and begged to go home. Instead, they took her clothes and made her wear a pair of gym shorts.

"It was a big joke to them," Chitwood said.

They took her to a McDonald's at some point, but forced her back to the apartment. On Sunday, the girl was in a bedroom alone, when she heard a car drive away. Believing her captors had left, she ran out of the apartment and into the street.

She was standing on the street, crying and asking for help when a man in a black SUV pulled over. The man let her call her father.

The man in the SUV drove her to meet her father at Lansdowne Avenue and Baltimore Pike. Police call the man who helped the girl a "Good Samaritan" and are asking him to come forward to be interviewed.

The girl's father drove her to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she was treated. The girl reported the rape on Monday.

Investigators drove the girl to where she was discovered on the street. From there, she was able to locate the apartment on the 500 block of Long Lane in Upper Darby.

Mortiman and Kulah lived at the apartment. The girl then identified them through police photo arrays. She also identified Johnson, according to the affidavit.

Chitwood said investigators found, "significant forensic evidence in the apartment that there was an assault" and corroborated the girl's story.

"The young girl was very credible," Chitwood said.

Police eventually found a Toyota Solaro outside the apartment that matched the girl's description as used at one point by her abductors. The car was registered to Kesselly, the affidavit states.

"As tragic as the events were," Chitwood said, "she's a lucky young lady that they didn't kill her."