Philadelphia Police identified the young woman found dead in a grassy Northern Liberties lot as a 21-year-old waitress who worked at the popular restaurant P.Y.T. in the Piazza at Schmidts.
Sabina Rose O'Donnell, 21, was discovered lying naked behind a tree in an empty lot along the 1200 block of N. Orianna Street just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, police say. A neighbor was walking their dog when they came upon her lifeless body.
O'Donnell was coming home from a night with friends at El Camino Real and was about to walk into her apartment building located along N. 4th Street sometime after midnight Wednesday when she was grabbed by a man, police say.
The woman was dragged from the building's doorway and into the lot, stripped of her clothes, brutally beaten and then strangled to death, police say. Philadelphia Police Capt. James Clark says investigators also believe she was robbed.
O'Donnell left the bar just before 10 p.m. to hang out at a friend's house, authorities said.
Around midnight, she borrowed that friend's bike to make the four-block trip back to her apartment, police say.
Investigators say the attack appears to be random. The homicide division is now investigating.
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