It took four years, but the man who raped and murdered Wharton MBA student Shannon Schieber has been arrested and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment, following guilty pleas to multiple sexual assaults in Philadelphia and Colorado. Troy Graves, 30, who committed a series of assaults in Philadelphia and became known as the Center City Rapist, pleaded guilty to raping and murdering the
23-year-old Schieber in her Center City apartment on May 7, 1998. He also pleaded guilty to the rape or attempted sexual assault of five other women in Philadelphia, as well as to similar crimes against seven women in Colorado, where he was arrested and where he has begun to serve his sentence.
Schieber’s parents, Vicki and Sylvester Schieber of Chevy Chase, Maryland, repeatedly said they did not want Graves to be executed, and at the Philadelphia sentencing on May 30, Graves tearfully apologized. He asked them to judge him and his sincerity by what he does for the rest of his life in prison, and said he had agreed to help criminal profilers in future investigations. His attorney, Daniel Stevenson, also publicly thanked the Schieber family for their public opposition to the death penalty for Graves.
The Schiebers have filed a federal lawsuit against the Philadelphia Police Department for mishandling their daughter’s case. The officers who responded to a neighbor’s report of screams from her apartment did not break down the door because the screams had stopped by the time they arrived, but the Schiebers believe she was still alive and that Graves was still in the apartment.