Rape and Murder May Be Connected

South Jersey investigators are examining two crimes – one a rape, one a murder – to see if they have something in common: a particular restaurant and bar in Deptford.

Police have arrested a Philadelphia man for the suspected rape of a woman who remembers drinking at the Adelphia Bar and Banquet Hall Thursday night, only to awake in the accused man's Northeast Philadelphia apartment the next morning.

The man, 49-year-old John Vallanos, is charged with kidnapping and sexual assault. A spokesperson for the Gloucester County prosecutor's office says they are trying to determine if Vallanos is a regular at Adelphia as part of their probe into the May 25th murder of 22-year-old Jennifer Whipkey. She was last seen alive at the Adelphia.

Liz McCool/WHIPKEY'S MOTHER: "I feel concerned for all young women right now. I think it's dangerous to be out in a nightclub." Although Vallanos has not been named a suspect in Whipkey's murder, her parents were told that the investigators in their daughter's case were attempting to talk with the man, who remains in the Gloucester County prison.

Jerry McCool/ WHIPKEY'S FATHER: "I called the detective from the prosecutor's office to see if there was any connection and they, along with the detectives in West Depftord, were just actually on their way to interview the person. So they really didn't know one way or the other whether this would amount to anything."

Whipkey's parents, along with friends, are organizing a community-wide yard sale in the hopes of adding to the $10,000 reward for information in Jennifer's killing. They are hoping for justice now that that Jennifer's dreams of being in the Air Force, and of giving her 5-year-old daughter siblings, are gone.

Liz McCool/WHIPKEY'S MOTHER: "She wanted to study criminal justice, she wanted to go to school, she even wanted to have more children, get married. She really had a lot of dreams and someone took them away."

Jennifer Whipkey's parents aren't hanging their hat on the news of the arrest. They think that the sexual assault victim's presence at the Adelphia and their daughter's presence there the night before she was abducted and killed could be nothing more than just a tragic coincidence.

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Author: 6 ABC-AP