Baby Hope identified, arrest made as NYPD cracks case of girl stuffed in picnic cooler 22 years ago
Associated Press | 13/10/13 | Last Updated: 13/10/13 4:15 PM ET
Conrado Juarez, 52, is arraigned Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, at Manhattan Criminal Court for the alleged murder of 4-year-old Anjelica Castillo, nicknamed "Baby Hope", in New York. Castillo's body was discovered inside a picnic cooler beside a Manhattan highway in 1991, resulting in a decades old investigation that led to Juarez's arrest and admission that he sexually assaulted and smothered her.
NEW YORK — The announcement of an arrest in one of New York City’s most notorious cold cases was especially relieving for two hardened investigators, who for 22 years had been working to identify the girl they nicknamed Baby Hope after discovering her body stuffed in a picnic cooler along a highway.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Melissa Mourges, the original prosecutor in the 1991 case and now chief of the cold case unit, told a Manhattan judge that Conrado Juarez, 52, was charged with felony murder late Saturday.
The charge came shortly after police announced the Bronx man was a relative of the tiny victim, 4-year-old Anjelica Castillo. Police revealed her name for the first time earlier in the day.
Juarez, wearing a white short sleeve button-down shirt and blue pants, pleaded not guilty but said nothing else after he was remanded to custody. Attorney information was not immediately available.
“Over the years, the optimism was always there except the frustration would grow,” said Detective Joseph Reznick, now a New York Police Department assistant chief who, in 1993, read the eulogy at the girl’s burial before hundreds of mourners. “I think reflecting back on what we named this little girl, Baby Hope, I think it’s the most accurate name we could have come up with.”
“You know the expression I’m on cloud 9? Well, that’s where I am right now,” said former detective Jerry Giorgio, who had the case from 1991 until this summer, when he retired from the Manhattan district attorney’s cold case squad.
For more than two decades, the girl’s name, age and circumstances of death were unknown. But in a dramatic turnaround, police last week announced that a new tip and a DNA test had allowed them to finally identify the baby’s mother.
Then, on Saturday, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced the arrest of Juarez, a dishwasher, who Kelly said confessed to the killing, claiming he killed the girl at his now-deceased sister’s apartment after sexually abusing her. He told authorities that the sister helped him dispose of the body. They were cousins of the girl’s father.
The case became an obsession for some investigators, who worked tirelessly to chase down every lead and generate new ones.
In July, detectives tried another round of publicity on the 22nd anniversary of the discovery of Baby Hope’s body. They canvassed the neighborhood where she was found, hung fliers, circulated sketches of her and a photograph of the cooler and announced a $12,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
A tipster, who saw recent news stories on the case, led police to Anjelica’s sister, who told detectives she thought her sister had been killed. Police matched DNA from Anjelica to their mother. The mother, who was not identified, didn’t have custody of Anjelica at the time of the girl’s death – she had been living with relatives on the father’s side, including Juarez’s sister, Balvina Juarez-Ramirez, police said.
Police closed in on the suspect and waited for him Friday outside a Manhattan restaurant where he worked. He told them he noticed Anjelica while visiting the family apartment and killed her, police said.
“When she went motionless, he summoned his sister from another room,” Kelly said.
Then, the sister got the blue cooler – which still contained full cans of Coke. They took a livery cab from Queens to Manhattan, where they dumped the cooler, then separated.
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
What a pity the Ottawa Police don't go after criminals like the NYPD.
Worse than a child abuser, are those who make false allegations.
Worse than that is abuse of a child by a person mandated to protect
children.
In Ottawa we have a Lawyer, a Child Protection Lawyer, Marguerite
Isobel Lewis who fabricates evidence to abuse children and victims of
abuse.
She personally fabricates evidence before the court as is the
habitual nature of those involved in the criminal cartel, the cult like
48 private corporations in Ontario who have One Billion Dollars worth of
reasons as to why they should fabricate evidence to make work for the
themselves.
If you think Marguerite Isobel Lewis is evil, then then think again.
The Ottawa Police commenced an investigatieon and dropped it on one phone call with a CAS Lawyer.
Then there is Ottawa Child Protection Worker Phil Hiltz-Laforgee who personally fabricates evidence. If you think thats bad, spare a thought
for Ottawa Police Det. Peter Van der Zand who fabricates evidence and throws victims of abuse in jail without photographing their injuries or interviewing them before "working" with the CAS to place children with an abuser.
Real crime starts close to whom and when the criminals are those who are meant to be serving and protecting, its time for everyone to know who these creeps are.
These unconvicted criminals are unlikely ever to be charged and most likely will go on to do the same thing again and again.
Such is the nature the worst form of criminals in our society.
You think that's bad?
Spare a thought for the Law Society of Upper Canada who don't give a dam and refuse to investigate, you see, their excuse is the matter is being litigated, except its not.
If you think that's bad?
Take note that the OIPRD are as useless as breasts on a bull when it comes to investigating police complaints.
Its enough to make you want to puke.