DNA leads to arrest, charges in ‘90s rapes

Philadelphia police have arrested a man in connection with two rapes in 1997 and 1998, investigators announced Wednesday.

Rodney Pray, 29, who also went by the last name Prey, was charged Monday with multiple counts of rape, aggravated assault, robbery and related offenses.

Pray was already in prison on a parole violation when police charged him with the rapes, said Philadelphia Captain John Darby.

Pray is the fifth man this year to be arrested in a "cold" rape case, thanks to advancements in DNA technology. Police charged Pray after his DNA came up in a national database as a match with genetic material that was collected from the two rapes.

"The message to the offenders is that they should be fearful," Darby said. "We are committed to bringing every instrument we can to the table to identify these individuals."

Pray, whose last known address was the 3000 block of N. 21st Street in North Philadelphia, committed both offenses when he was a teenager, police said.

On April 13, 1997, Pray dragged a 38-year-old woman from her Tioga home at around 4 a.m., raped her at knifepoint and robbed her, Darby said.

The second assault was on Jan. 28, 1998. Around 10:30 p.m. Pray approached a 22-year-old woman who was walking in North Philadelphia and attacked her, again threatening her with a knife.

Pray has since served time for burglary and drug charges, court records show, but he has no prior sexual assault convictions.

In January, when his name popped up as a match for the rapes, he was in Rockview State Prison on a parole violation. In March, investigators obtained a new DNA sample from him to confirm the match.

Pray had been close to finishing his sentence and was scheduled to be released from prison soon, Darby said, so investigators lodged a detainer to keep Pray incarcerated until they could file the rape charges.

Police said it was possible Pray could be linked to additional assaults in the future.

Solving cold cases require police officers to track down not only the alleged offenders but also the victims, some of whom might have mixed feelings about revisiting a decades-old trauma.

"You need a brave victim who is willing to be involved in this process," Darby said.