Post date: Oct 13, 2013 3:46:38 PM
New York City police arrest a suspect in the 1991 killing of a young girl known as 'Baby Hope,' whose body was discovered stuffed in a picnic cooler along a highway and whose identity has been a mystery until now.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 12, 2013) (NBC) - New York City police have arrested a cousin in the killing of a 4-year-old girl dubbed "Baby Hope," whose body was found crammed in a picnic cooler in 1991, police said on Saturday (October 12).
Conrado Juarez, 52, early on Saturday confessed to sexually assaulting and then smothering the girl, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a news conference.
Kelly said that Juarez had told investigators that he ran into Castillo in a hallway when he went to an apartment in Astoria shared by seven of his relatives.
"Early this morning Juarez admitted that he sexually assaulted Angelica, that he smothered her and then disposed of the body with the aid of his sister, Balvina Juarez-Ramirez," said Kelly.
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.
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 of 1991. She had been starved and sexually abused, police said.
"They then separated and Juarez returned to the Bronx and his sister to Queens, never to speak of the heinous act again," said Kelly.
Police detained Juarez at a Manhattan restaurant on Friday, more than 22 years after the girl's death, said Kelly. 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 4-year-old Anjelica Castillo.
New York police announced on 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.
"You know the expression 'I'm on cloud nine'? Well that's where I am right now," said Jerry Giorgio, a retired detective who worked on the case.
"When we visit this plot now out at Saint Raymond's we can now attach a name to this little girl," added Joseph Reznick, who was a detective back in 1991 and is now a assistant chief for the NYPD.
New Yorkers for years saw police sketches of the dead child on posters around the city.