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Police: Lyft Driver Charged With Alleged Rape

ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- A Lyft driver has been charged with an alleged rape that occurred two years ago, police say.

According to the Ross Police Department, 30-year-old Darrel Hardy is accused of raping a female passenger when he was working as a Lyft driver in 2017. And police are praising the victim for never giving up on a two-year-old rape case.

Darrel Hardy
Darrel Hardy (Photo Credit: Allegheny County)

Police say that Hardy was working the night of July 1, 2017, when he picked up two women and drove them to the Hampton Inn on McNight Road. After he drove them to the hotel, police say he followed the women to their room.

The women did not invite him in, but for unknown reasons, police say they did allow Hardy to enter the room. Authorities say one of the women was sexually assaulted after they went to sleep.

Investigators were able to identify Hardy as the women's Lyft driver, but they were unable to contact him. They eventually discovered that he left the country for a year to work security in Iraq.

Then, last September, Ross Police learned that Hardy was back in the country and being held in Allegheny County Jail on an unrelated homicide charge.

That's when authorities were able to obtain a search warrant for a sample of his DNA.

"It came back with a match to the sample DNA that we sent from our suspect to the DNA that was collected off of the victim," said Det. Sgt. Brian Kohlhepp of the Ross Township Police Department.

Police filed the rape charge against Hardy on Tuesday. He is awaiting his preliminary hearing from the county jail, where he is still being held on the unrelated homicide charge.

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