Second Rape in Five Days Reported at Harvard

A woman reported that she was raped Tuesday night near Oxford and Kirkland Streets, just four days after another rape was reported inside Harvard Yard.

This culprit was described in a University police email to the Harvard community on Friday as a white male in his mid-twenties, 5'6" with a thin build and dark hair.

"We are in the preliminary states of the investigation, but the descriptions of the offenders [in the two rape cases] do not match,"  said HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano. He said that both cases are under active investigations.

Prior to the first of the two recent rapes, no stranger rape was reported on Harvard's campus in the past 12 years, Catalano said. He said that an average of four students each year report rape by someone known to the victim.

Both victims of the past week's attacks were women unaffiliated with the University.

HUPD has increased the number of uniformed and plainclothes officers and uniformed security guards around campus, Catalano said, for "as long as needed."

The police department asks that anyone who has information regarding this incident call the Criminal Investigation Division at 617-495-1796.

—Staff writer C.C. Gong can be reached at xigong@college.harvard.edu.