Police arrest cousin in 1991 killing of ‘Baby Hope’
Print Edition
New York City police have arrested a cousin in the killing of a four-year-old girl dubbed “Baby Hope,” whose body was found in a picnic cooler in 1991.
Conrado Juarez, 52, last Saturday confessed to sexually assaulting and then smothering the girl, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a news conference.
Police detained him at a Manhattan restaurant last Friday, more than 22 years after the girl’s death, he said. Juarez was arrested on the murder charge and was awaiting arraignment, according to New York electronic court records.
The girl, dubbed “Baby Hope” by investigators, was never reported missing and was only recently identified.
Kelly named her as four-year-old Anjelica Castillo.
Her bound, asphyxiated body was discovered stuffed underneath cans of soda inside a blue-and-white cooler alongside the Henry Hudson Highway in northern Manhattan in July 1991. She had been starved and sexually abused, police said.
New York police said last Tuesday they had identified the girl’s mother after following through on a tip they received over the summer. Her identity was confirmed through DNA testing and she was cooperating with the investigation, they said.
After the girl’s death, members of the police department paid for her funeral and many worked for years in hopes of identifying her or her killer.
“Today, NYPD investigators are giving young Anjelica her due justice,” Kelly said.
Kelly said Juarez had told investigators he ran into Castillo in a hallway when he went to an apartment in Astoria shared by seven of his relatives.
“He said he sexually assaulted the child, then smothered her,” Kelly said of Juarez. “When she went motionless, he summoned his sister from another room.”
His sister, who has since died, told him to dispose of the body and brought him a cooler, Kelly said. They took the cooler from the apartment and rode in a cab to Manhattan where they carried it through a wooded area and put it down, he said.
“Juarez returned to the Bronx and his sister to Queens, never to speak of the heinous act again until the NYPD investigators through their relentless investigation caught up with Juarez,” Kelly said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
