DNA leads to charges in 1998 Phoenixville rape

A former Philadelphia resident, who has been incarcerated for his role in a 2002 murder and a five-county robbery ring, was arraigned this morning on charges that he raped a Phoenixville woman in 1998.

Phoenixville police said Ronald E. Mapp, 35, was extradited from Florida, where he has been serving a prison term of 25 to 50 years, after detectives received notification that his DNA matched the lab profile submitted at the time of the alleged attack.

The evidence had been collected at Phoenixville Area Hospital on Sept. 19, 1998, after the victim, who was 27, told police she was approached from behind by a masked individual while walking on Nutt Road in the area of Althouse Lane about 6:15 a.m.

The woman said that after she was forced into a fenced area and sexually assaulted, the suspect fled, police said. Police said they received notification a year ago of a preliminary match through a national database.

Special Agent Jeffrey Bolin of the FBI interviewed Mapp in Florida and determined that Mapp had ties to Phoenixville; Bolin also received a DNA sample so that it could be compared with the one on file, which it matched, police said.

Mapp is serving time in a federal penitentiary in Coleman, Fla., for his involvement in a 2002 robbery ring that operated in Lehigh and Bucks Counties as well as his role in an April 20, 2002, murder at the Sports Page bar in Allentown during one of the robberies, police said.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 5.