Nearly 10 years after the Fairmount Park rapist's first attack, investigators will compare his DNA to the Jason T. Smith's, sources tell NBC10. Smith is charged in the murder of Dr. Melissa Ketunuti. The CHOP pediatric researcher's body was found bound and burning inside the basement of her Center City home on Monday. Smith's DNA will also be compared to a second serial rapist -- the man responsible for unsolved attacks in Pennypack Park.
Ketunuti was strangled, and police believe Smith, an exterminator, is the man responsible.
Statement From Dr. Ketunuti's Family
The Fairmount Park Rapist [pictured on the right] murdered one of his victims, Rebecca Park.
Park, 30, was a medical student. Park was raped and strangled near a jogging path close to Conshohocken Avenue. DNA links the serial rapist to three more attacks.
All of the women had been jogging in the area when they were raped. The attacks happened between April 30, 2003 and August 11, 2007. The suspect, who is believed to be a Hispanic man, has never been caught. There was $30,000 in reward money for his arrest. In 2010, police returned that money to the donors.
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Smith, an exterminator, came to Dr. Ketunuti's house on Monday to do some work in the basement. The two got into an argument and investigators say Smith told them that Ketunuti talked down to him and he "just snapped" and strangled her. Then he allegedly tried to cover his tracks by setting her body on fire.
Police used surveillance video to track Smith, 36 to his home in Levittown, Bucks County, where he was arrested Wednesday night.
His DNA will also be compared to the Pennypack Park rapist, [pictured to the left] who is linked to three unsolved sex assaults that happened between July of 2010 and 2012.
In those cases, the victims were raped and beaten.
The suspect drove a white work truck.
