Bryn Mawr student abducted on campus

A female Bryn Mawr student was abducted by a man while waiting in her car on the corner of 39th and Walnut streets early Friday morning and was later raped and robbed, University Police said. Police said the woman had been visiting the University and was waiting for a friend when the assailant, claiming to have a gun, forced his way into the car and made her drive to Bryn Mawr College and finally to New Jersey, where the man released her and fled. The student had parked her two-door, green Nissan Pulsar on Walnut between 38th and 39th streets around 2 a.m. when the incident occurred, University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said yesterday. When the student and the assailant arrived at Bryn Mawr's campus, the man followed the woman to her dormitory room, where he forced her to get her automatic teller card and her credit cards, Kuprevich said. The woman told police the man then made her withdraw an undisclosed amount of money from an ATM machine near the suburban school, Kuprevich said. The woman told police that she was then told by the man, who still threatened to have a gun, to drive to New Jersey. The assailant did not show the gun to the woman. Once in New Jersey, the man fled the scene and left the woman behind, Kuprevich said. Kuprevich said the woman was raped but declined to say where the rape occurred. After the assailant released her, the woman apparently drove back to the University where she flagged down a University Police officer and reported the incident at 5:37 a.m., nearly three and a half hours after the beginning of the ordeal, Kuprevich said. The woman described the attacker as a black man in his late twenties, light skinned, with a mustache, short hair and a medium build. "Philadelphia Police Sex Crimes is the primary investigative unit on the case," Kuprevich said. "Our department and Bryn Mawr are cooperating in fullest." A Philadelphia Sex Crimes spokesman said yesterday that the unit is investigating the incident, but refused to comment on the specifics of the case. Bryn Mawr College Public Safety officials confirmed that a Bryn Mawr student was attacked, but also refused to comment on the case. But a Bryn Mawr College Public Safety officer said last night that there are locked doors to Bryn Mawr College dormitories and that there are no security officers at the entrances to on-campus residences. After the incident, Kuprevich said that University Police officers were told to pay special attention to the 3800 and 3900 blocks of Walnut Street during late night and early morning hours. Kuprevich said that police officers would concentrate efforts in the area last night also. University Police also issued a Crime Alert bulletin to dormitories in the area of 39th and Walnut, Kuprevich said. The bulletin states that the woman was accosted "at the point of instrument," and asks anyone with information about the incident to call University Police. The bulletin also asks students and staff travelling by car to "drive with doors locked and windows rolled up," and also tells victims not to "resist" or "panic." "Those were the steps that were appropriate for us to take; to notify the community, and beef up officers in the area," Kuprevich said. Kuprevich said that the woman has been offered the services of the University's Victim Support Services and that the woman is also being helped by Bryn Mawr College's rape counseling services.

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