State College police have arrested a Port Matilda man they say is responsible for the serial rapes of four Penn State students between 2010 and 2017.
Jeffrey P. Fields, 36, was taken into custody Tuesday on 16 felony charges, including multiple counts of rape and sexual assault. He was arraigned by District Judge Don Hahn, who denied bail.
All four women reported being raped by an unknown male late at night outdoors in the Highlands section of State College. Police said DNA samples collected during rape examinations at Mount Nittany Medical Center were used to eventually identify Fields as the suspect.
The investigation began on Aug. 22, 2010, when a 20-year-old woman reported that she was assaulted in the early morning hours in the area of Apple Alley, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed by State College detectives Stephen Bosak and Nicole Eckley.
On Jan. 28, 2011, a 19-year-old woman reported that after leaving a party in the Fraternity Row area, she entered a vehicle where she was struck in the face and raped by an unknown male.
The third victim, a 20-year-old woman, reported on April 3, 2011 that she was walking to her home on South Burrowes Street in the area of Fairmount Avenue when she was approached by a man who asked if she needed help getting home. After she said no, the man allegedly dragged her behind a building to an area overgrown with bushes and trees where he raped and repeatedly hit her when she pleaded with him to stop.
On July 16, 2017, a 19-year-old woman reported she was walking home in the area of West Prospect Avenue and South Atherton Street when a man grabbed her from behind and raped her. She managed to escape during the assault.
DNA samples were sent to the Pennsylvania State Police lab for analysis following each assault and found to be a match in all four cases. The DNA profile also was uploaded to the FBI’s CODIS database.
In 2018, DNA samples were sent to private labs for genetic genealogy screening, with the profile being loaded into genealogical databases.
Through forensic genetic genealogical work, police developed the suspect’s family tree which “was identified as having a high likelihood of including” Fields, according to the affidavit.
Several family members provided DNA and the results ruled out branches of the family tree as containing the possible suspect.
Fields’ parents provided DNA samples in June. On Friday, an analyst told detectives that both samples showed they were the mother and father of the suspect with 99.9999% certainty. Jeffrey Fields is their only biological son together, according to the affidavit.
A search warrant was issued on Tuesday to collect a DNA sample from Fields.
Police said Fields was continuously employed in the State College area from the third quarter of 2010 through the present.
Fields is charged with four felony counts of rape by forcible compulsion, four felony counts of rape by threat of forcible compulsion, four felony counts of sexual assault, four felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and three misdemeanor counts of simple assault.
He is being held at the Centre County Correctional Facility.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 29.
A defense attorney for Fields is not listed in court documents.
