Lincoln Park rape suspect's family defends their son; victim says she knew attackers

Tonight FOX 2 spoke to that suspect's family who says there is a lot more to this story.

"Right now we're trying to get him to turn himself in," said Markita Eckford, Anderson's mother. "He's 19 and really scared."

They stopped at a Sunoco to buy cigarettes where an image of the 22-year-old suspect was captured.

But his family is telling a much different story - they say Fernando doesn't wear a tether, adding he never has.

"She claims that she didn't know him," said Brandee Robinson, the suspect's sister. "If you look right here, here's her number, and if you look at the messages back and forth, that's the same number. She has been talking to him since March 21.

Fernando’s family pulled up his text messages showing conversations with that matching phone number that date back to March 21.

FOX 2: "How do you know that?"

Eckford claims the two had apparently met the woman on a website.

As soon as the let her go, she told police everything that happened.

"You can't tell the police that you don't know them, that you had no contact with them and it was a random robbery when obviously they had your phone number," Robinson said.

She said she is cooperating with police, who are still pursuing charges against these two suspects