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A young woman’s Christmas—and her life—was shattered Tuesday when she was kidnapped, raped, robbed and beaten in her own car by three teenagers over the course of five hours, according to police.
“You’ll get sick in the stomach,” said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood, before reciting the facts of the case.
Around 11:40 p.m. Christmas night, the 22-year-old victim was in her Jeep Cherokee, waiting for her boyfriend to come out of a nearby bar, when three men—one of whom had a gun—forced their way inside of her vehicle, Chitwood said. They made the woman move to the back seat and drove her around Philadelphia for hours, police said. One by one, the men took turns in the back seat, forcing the victim to perform sex acts, even after she repeatedly vomited on them, according to court documents.
The men hit her on multiple occasions and robbed her of her Coach purse, wallet, car stereo, cell phone, camera, GPS, ruby ring, diamond necklace, bracelet and her insurance-and-registration paperwork, according to police. After going through her belongings, the men realized the victim had a 2-year-old daughter and they threatened her life and the child’s life if she said anything to authorities. They then parked the car at Long Lane near Marshall Road, told the victim they would throw the keys under the car and fled on foot.The woman waited for several minutes, grabbed her keys and drove to her boyfriend’s house, and they both went to the police station.
In a bizarre twist, authorities took less than an hour to track down the alleged attackers after police were called to an Upper Darby home to respond to a disturbance. A woman had called 911 saying a teenager staying over at her house with her son was bragging about having a gun. When officers, who knew about the vicious rape, arrived at the home, they discovered four teens—two of whom were the woman’s sons and one of whom, Kevin Jones, said he was a friend of the woman’s sons who stayed at the house so he could illegally attend Upper Darby High School, police said. The fourth teen at the scene, Kewon Matthews, said he was a friend to Jones, according to police.
Inside the house, the observant officers spotted a Coach handbag that matched the one stolen from the rape victim, Chitwood said. After confirming with the woman in the house that the bag was not hers, police opened it and found some of the victim’s stolen items inside. The victim was then brought to the house where she identified Matthews and Jones, both 17, as two of her attackers, Chitwood said. The sons of the woman who owns the house were questioned but not charged with any crimes. After the arrest of Matthews and Jones, police were able to identify the third suspect as Brehon Rawlings, 19, of Yeadon, Chitwood said. Rawlings was found hiding in the bathtub of his home around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, police said.
All three men were charged as adults with kidnapping, rape, robbery and related offenses and are being held on $500,000 bail each. They are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on New Year’s Eve day.
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