The suspect charged in two rapes, including the assault of a Towson University student, was caught after he filmed himself on a stolen cell phone he left at the scene of the second attack, police said.
Ian Murphy, 24 — who is charged with raping the 21-year-old college student days after he allegedly attacked a 22-year-old exotic dancer near the Inner Harbor — filmed himself on a stolen cell phone about a day before the Towson crime, according to charging documents.
Murphy must have accidentally left the cell phone at the second crime scene, police said.
Two witnesses, who came forward with information after Baltimore County police asked the public for help with the case, identified Murphy as the man on the video.
“They stated they had socialized several times in the past three weeks with him but had become uncomfortable around him due to his demeanor towards women,” Baltimore County police Officer James Bonsall wrote in charging documents. “They stated he was very aggressive towards women and in particular Caucasian women, stating his preference for them ‘because they could be dominated.’ ”
Those statements jibed with information the 21-year-old college student told detectives about her attacker, Bonsall wrote.
“The suspect questioned her about her relationship with her boyfriend and if she was enjoying the acts and referred to the fact that he was black and she was white,” the officer wrote.
Murphy, of the 1000 block of Cedarcroft Road in North Baltimore, told one of the witnesses that he had seen a “naked female running out of the woods” who “claimed she was raped” and a “male walking out of the woods,” according to charging documents.
But prosecutor Jason League said Murphy later told police a different story: that the student had consented to the sex acts with him.
The attack on the student occurred around 1 a.m. on Oct. 6, as the woman unloaded groceries outside her home on the 7900 block of Knollwood Road. Murphy implied he had a gun and forced her to walk three blocks away, where he attacked her behind some bushes, police said.
On Oct. 2, Murphy also raped an exotic dancer near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, according to police. Murphy attacked the dancer shortly after she got off work on The Block at 3 a.m., grabbing her by the hair and raping her between two vehicles on the 700 block of Eastern Avenue, according to city police spokeswoman Officer Nicole Monroe.
Baltimore County police investigating the Towson rape came across evidence belonging to the dancer, who then identified Murphy as her attacker, city police said.
Murphy has told a judge he is innocent of the Towson crime.
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