Crawford-Roberts Rape Suspect To Stand Trial
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A man accused of raping a woman in Pittsburgh's Crawford-Roberts neighborhood was held for trial Tuesday morning.
According to police, Yancey Murphy, 45, attacked a woman as she was leaving a bar on May 10.
They say he wrapped a belt around her neck, dragged her into the bushes and sexually assaulted her.
She recalled the attack Tuesday after the hearing.
After celebrating her birthday at Aces Duces Bar on Fifth Avenue, the victim says she walked up Reed Street in the Lower Hill when she was attacked by a man who came out of the woods.
"When I got up there, he put a chain around my neck and tried to hang me," she told KDKA. "He grabbed me and dragged me in the woods up these steps to where a stone brick was."
The victim, who will remain unidentified, says she was strangled, punched and kicked in the head as she tried to fight off her attacker near an abandoned church. She says she was raped as she lapsed in and out of consciousness.
Then, something happened that caused her attacker to stop.
"Somebody pulled up because I kept screaming, 'God, God, God,'" the victim said. "When I went down, somebody came. When I had my last breath, I would have been dead. Somebody came, he ran."
When she stumbled out of the woods, beat up and half naked, the Good Samaritan called police and then went after the suspect.
"When he started running, he chased him," the victim said, "and it's a blessing and I'm lucky to be alive."
The man chased the suspect all the way down to Fifth Avenue and stayed on his trail until police arrived and made an arrest.
"I would like to thank him and I give blessings that I'm alive," she said. "Thank you, thank you for giving me life."
Murphy remains in jail. However, the judge reduced his bond from $1 million to $100,000.
Murphy faces charges of aggravated assault, kidnapping, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and unlawful restraint.
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