18-year-old raped by stranger in Springfield tunnel, police say; suspect identified

An 18-year-old woman was walking through a pedestrian tunnel on a Sunday in March when police say an unfamiliar man approached and raped her.

The secluded tunnel, about 100 feet long, runs underneath the railroad tracks just north of Commercial Street along Washington Avenue.

Police say the man in the March 29 daytime incident acted alone. He allegedly pushed the woman against a concrete wall of the tunnel.

She screamed, but police say he covered her mouth with his hands.

According to police, the man turned the woman to face the wall, reached up her shirt and fondled her breast.

He pulled down her pants and digitally penetrated the woman, police say, then he made her bend over and raped her.

She begged him to stop, police say, but he didn't.

"If you be quiet and let it happen, I will let you go," the man allegedly said in a soft voice.

After the sexual assault, police say the man used his cellphone to take a picture of the woman's ID card.

He allegedly said that if she told anyone, he would find her and retaliate.

The incident is described in a search warrant used by police to obtain evidence from a suspect.

Police identify suspect using victim's description

According to the warrant, the woman quickly called 911 after the rape and gave a detailed description of the man: black or mixed race, 6 feet tall, 30-40 years old, short hair, wearing black or gray sweatpants, a dark long-sleeved sweatshirt and worn-out tennis shoes.

The woman didn't think he was homeless, police say, because he smelled clean and his fingernails were trimmed.

Police arrived on the scene and were able to photograph wet shoe prints that had a distinct pattern of rectangles and circles, the warrant said.

According to the warrant, police identified a 32-year-old man as a suspect because he matched several points of the woman's description and lived five blocks away.

Also, police say the suspect was on parole for a forcible sexual assault he committed in 2003 that had similar circumstances to the March 29 incident.

RELATED: Woman grabbed off Springfield street by 3 men, forced into a car and raped, police say

The warrant said the suspect was released from prison in July.

According to the warrant, the suspect's parole officer confirmed to police that the suspect often wore sweatpants and old tennis shoes and is generally clean in appearance.

The parole officer also said the suspect is unstable.

The warrant said the suspect has been the subject of two police reports since being released from prison.

A month after the suspect's release, a woman told police she found his wallet underneath a bedroom window of her home, the warrant said.

A few months after that, the suspect was investigated for allegedly masturbating in his car in view of a woman at a Springfield Walmart.

The suspect had been given a GPS ankle monitor following the Walmart incident, the warrant said, but his parole officer took him off GPS monitoring about two weeks before the rape took place.

The suspect made daily trips to the tunnel

Days after the rape, the suspect came to a regular meeting with his parole officer, the warrant said.

Unbeknownst to the suspect, detectives were out of sight in a nearby cubicle, listening.

They say they heard a soft voice.

The parole officer was able to sneak a look at the suspect's worn-out tennis shoes, which had a distinct pattern of rectangles and circles, according to the warrant.

The parole officer did not tip the suspect to any investigation, the warrant said, but she told him she was putting him back on GPS monitoring for a minor violation.

Initially, the ankle monitor apparently did not show anything suspicious.

A week passed.

RELATED: Woman says she was raped in a Drury dorm. Suspect's attorney calls it a false allegation.

Then, according to the ankle monitor, the suspect began making almost daily trips to the area around the pedestrian tunnel along Washington Avenue.

Sometimes, the suspect drove through the area, the warrant said, and sometimes he would park his car nearby and walk in the area.

Late last month, police used the search warrant to seize potential evidence from the suspect's home and car.

The warrant said they took clothes, a wallet, pieces of mail, a flash drive and memory cards from the suspect's home and a pair of shoes, a cellphone and a condom from his car.

A department spokeswoman said police are waiting on results from DNA testing in this case. She said it can take weeks to several months before results come back.

As of Thursday, it did not appear the suspect had been arrested or criminally charged in connection with the alleged rape.

The pedestrian tunnel where police say the rape occurred is one of a few locations where people can walk past the railroad tracks that run along the north side of the downtown Commercial Street area.

There's graffiti on the tunnel walls. It smells like urine in some places. Water drips from cracks in the concrete.

Closure of nearby bridge forces pedestrians to tunnel

Two blocks away is the Jefferson Avenue Footbridge, which connects Commercial Street to Chase Street.

The footbridge — constructed in 1902 — has been closed since 2016 after an inspection revealed corrosion and steel loss.

Renovations could cost a few million dollars.

City Council recently voted to start the process of seeking bids for fixing the bridge and making it wheelchair-accessible.

MORE: Next step for Jefferson Avenue Footbridge's rehabilitation gets green light from council

The location of the alleged rape is also less than a mile away from where another sexual assault reportedly originated.

Police said a woman was walking near the intersection of Commercial Street and Grant Avenue in April 2017 when three men forced her into the back of a car and she was raped.

(The suspect in the pedestrian tunnel incident was in prison at the time of the 2017 incident).

Police say DNA evidence linked Robbie Ray Robinson to that incident. Robinson is currently serving time in federal prison on a gun charge.

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