The prime suspect in Philadelphia’s “Kensington Strangler” case confessed to the sex murders of three women, according to police sources Tuesday.
Antonio Rodriguez, 22, of Philadelphia, still has not been formally charged with killing the three, who were sexually assaulted and strangled late last year. He is officially a “person of interest” in the case.
Police are working on the warrants, but Rodriguez reportedly made a “full confession” to those three murders — and tried to claim a fourth attack.
Police sources said they have reviewed that case and believe the victim died from a drug overdose — and it doesn’t look like a homicide.
City Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey discussed Tuesday revelations that it took nearly 80 days for a state police lab to enter into a database a DNA sample from Rodriguez, who was taken into custody Monday after being linked to the sex murders
Rodriguez provided a DNA sample to Pennsylvania State Police on Oct. 25, 2010, under a requirement that samples from felons be submitted.
A DNA sample taken from one of the victims in the case was submitted by Philadelphia police on Nov. 23.
The DNA sample from Rodriguez was uploaded to a database on Jan. 10, 2011. A match between the DNA samples was made Monday at 10:00am.
The director of the state police’s forensics lab said a backlog in the system and needed computer upgrades to the testing database were to blame for the delays.
Asked to comment on that explanation, Philadelphia’s police commissioner said: “Well, I mean, it’s a very complicated procedure, and the reality is just about every department in the country has some sort of backlog when it comes to DNA.”
He added: “The bottom line is we were able to get this guy, which is a good thing, get him off the street.”