State College Police Investigating Possible Serial Rapist

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (KDKA) -- Police in State College are investigating a possible serial rapist in a string of cases going back several years.

At least three victims were students at Penn State.

State College Police now say four rape cases over seven years are linked by the same DNA profile.

The first three cases, which happened in 2010 and 2011, do have similarities.

The victims were Penn State students under 21 and all highly intoxicated.

Police say the rapes happened in the early morning while the victims were walking alone in neighborhoods near Downtown.

The victims all suffered facial injuries.

Then last summer, a woman told police a man with an accent pushed her into some bushes and sexually assaulted her.

DNA tests have now come back showing it's the same attacker in all the cases.

"To know that it's something that's been going on for years now, and no one has been found and not any leads, it's definitely very concerning," Penn State student Duneshka Cruz said.

A freshman from the Saxonburg area who doesn't want her name used says she found out about the rape cases from a friend on Sunday.

"I was not aware of this until a friend told me the other day, so it's been about 24 hours since I've known something was even wrong," she said.

Police are urging students to be vigilant especially in the early morning hours and say it's always safer not to walk alone.

The student from Saxonburg said: "I actually spend a lot of times off campus - just because of clubs of and friends who are upperclassmen. I tend to use the bus a lot, and I am up at late hours of night walking on campus, and again, I have never felt unsafe."

The only description police have is possibly a white man, and an accent was mentioned in this latest case.