NYPD reopening 20-year-old cold case of Baby Hope

[MuffyBee]

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9181896
NYPD reopening 20-year-old cold case of Baby Hope
July 23, 2013

In July of 1991, the body of a young girl was found inside a cooler in a wooded area on the Henry Hudson Parkway and Dyckman Street in Washington Heights just before 11 a.m.

Police are heading back to the area to talk to people and try to learn some new information.

Officers have flooded into the Inwood section of Manhattan putting up posters about the case.

The girl, identified as Baby Hope, was between 3 and 5 years old.

"Obviously someone had to know her," said Detective Robert Dewhurst of the Cold Case Apprehension Squad. "She may or may not have been from this area."

The NYPD released an updated age-progression sketch of the victim, as well as the original sketch from 1991.

"It's the best picture of a life-life little girl that people may recognize a lot better," Dewhurst said.
 
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Video at Link

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/23/us/nypd-cold-case/
NYPD hasn't given up on Baby Hope case
July 23, 2013



 
On July 23, 1991, the body of an unidentified little girl --named "Baby Hope" by detectives -- was found in a blue and white picnic cooler in a wooded area near the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York City.
The girl, believed to be 3 to 5 years old, was smothered and sexually molested. Her body was so badly decomposed that several sketches were made to suggest what she looked like.
Police could not track down anyone who might have known the girl. She was never reported missing.
 
For months after Baby Hope's body was found, police went back to the site hoping whoever was responsible, driven by guilt, had left some type of memorial that would have helped police.
Two years after she was found murdered, Baby Hope was laid to rest in a donated plot, thanks mainly to detectives who worked on the case. She was buried in a white dress bought by a detective's wife.
Despite the years this case has remained opened, Dewhurst said he is not frustrated.
"This is what my squad does," he said. "Twenty years is not uncommon for a cold case.
"I have hope. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing this."
 

[Sister]

I hope someone with information will come forward.
How awful!
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/08/cops-id-mom-of-girl-found-in-cooler-22-years-ago/2944005/
Cops ID mom of girl found in cooler 22 years ago
October 8, 2013

(Newser) – Police in New York City have made a breakthrough in a case that horrified the city in the summer of 1991. A toddler who became known as "Baby Hope" was found dead in a cooler by highway workers in Washington Heights, tied up and in a plastic bag.

The girl, believed to have been 3 to 5 years old, had been starved, sexually abused, beaten, and strangled, but was never reported missing. Now, thanks to a tip and DNA evidence, police believe they have identified the girl's mother, a law enforcement official tells the New York Times.
Police made a fresh push this summer to solve the case, putting up flyers in the neighborhood where the body was found and offering a $12,000 reward for information. The effort paid off when police received a tip from a woman who said she may have spoken to Baby Hope's sister, a woman who said her sister had been killed.

Police acting on that tip interviewed several people and were able to confirm the identity of Baby Hope's mother, but while the case remains a murder investigation, nobody has been charged yet. Police are questioning the suspected mother, the New York Post reports.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://nypost.com/2013/10/08/dna-match-in-baby-hope-cold-case/
‘Baby Hope’ mom ID’d in cold case breakthrough
October 8, 2013


Police have made a break in the 1991 "Baby Hope" cold case.
Photo: DCPI

[MuffyBee]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/08/nypd-identifies-woman-thought-to-be-mother-baby-hope-whose-body-was-stuffed-in/
NYPD identifies woman thought to be mother of 'Baby Hope,' whose body was stuffed in cooler
October 8, 2013

NEW YORK –  In a dramatic break in a cold case more than two decades old, investigators have used DNA to identify a woman they believe is the mother of a dead child known only as Baby Hope, police said Tuesday.

The New York Police Department received a tip from someone after a publicity push about the cold case over the summer, chief police spokesman John McCarthy said. The tip led to the woman, and McCarthy said a DNA match was made last week.

He said the woman had been interviewed and was cooperating with authorities. Police were also speaking to other people. No official suspects have been named.

The case dates to July 23, 1991, when a road worker discovered the remains of the 3- to 5-year-old girl inside a picnic cooler along the Henry Hudson Parkway after smelling something rotting. Her body was unclothed and malnourished and showed signs of possible sex abuse.

Detectives theorized at the time that she had been suffocated before being dumped like garbage on a grassy incline. They estimated she was dead six to eight days before the cooler was found.

In an interview in July, retired Detective Jerry Giorgio said he had pursued hundreds of leads but none panned out. He had the case from 1991 until he retired from the force. Later, as an investigator for the Manhattan district attorney's office, he kept up with it. His name and contact information are still on a website dedicated to the girl.
 
As the frustration mounted, so did detectives' affection for the victim. They began calling her "our baby." Eventually she became "Baby Hope" — because they hoped and prayed they'd solve the case, Giorgio said.

He was instrumental in organizing a burial for the girl in 1993. Hundreds attended the funeral. The girl was dressed in a white frock and buried in a white coffin.

[MuffyBee]

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2021991165_apusbabyhope.html
NYPD wants to talk to father of dead Baby Hope
In a dramatic break in a cold case that frustrated police for more than two decades, investigators used DNA to identify the mother of a dead child known only as Baby Hope and now want to question her father, police said Tuesday.
By TOM HAYS
October 8, 2013

In a dramatic break in a cold case that frustrated police for more than two decades, investigators used DNA to identify the mother of a dead child known only as Baby Hope and now want to question her father, police said Tuesday.
 
"A DNA match was made with the mother, and the mother is cooperating," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said on Tuesday.

The woman, who lives in the city, told police that she believed her child hadn't died. She said the girl, who was about 4 at the time, disappeared while she and a younger sister were in the care of her father. It was unclear whether the disappearance was ever reported.

After getting the tip, investigators used DNA from the girl's body to match her to her mother. Police said Tuesday that they were still trying to locate the father.
 
Baby Hope's body was exhumed in 2007 for DNA testing, but no DNA could be extracted because of its poor condition. A second attempt was made in 2011 using better technology on bone material and produced a usable DNA sample, police said Tuesday.

[MuffyBee]

This article is a very good read.  Very touching.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/nyregion/at-the-gravestone-of-baby-hope-investigators-who-never-let-go.html?_r=0
CRIME SCENE
At the Gravestone of ‘Baby Hope,’ Investigators Who Never Let Go
By MICHAEL WILSON
Published: October 8, 2013

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/relative-arrested-baby-hope-case-article-1.1483690
'Baby Hope' case: Cousin confesses to sexually assaulting, killing toddler Anjelica Castillo more than two decades ago
October 12, 2013

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announces dishwasher Conrado Juarez, 52, of the Bronx, has been arrested in connection with the murder. The 4-year-old's remains were found rotting in a picnic cooler along Henry Hudson Parkway on July 23, 1991.

(subscription)  

[MuffyBee]

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/angelica-castillo-baby-hope-case-52-year-old-cousin-admits-to-sexually-assaulting-girl-police-say
Angelica Castillo, Baby Hope case: 52-year-old cousin admits to sexually assaulting girl, police say
October 12, 2013

EW YORK - Police announced Saturday that, after an investigation that lasted more than two decades, they had arrested the killer of a child who was nicknamed Baby Hope by detectives after her body was discovered inside a picnic cooler beside a Manhattan highway in 1991.

During an interrogation early Saturday, the 4-year-old girl's cousin, Conrado Juarez, had admitted sexually assaulting and smothering her, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

The child's name and the circumstances of her death had been a mystery for two decades. But earlier this week, police announced that a new tip and a DNA test had allowed them to finally identify the baby's mother, a dramatic turnaround in one of the city's more notorious cold cases.

Now they are also revealing the slain girl's name: Anjelica Castillo.

It wasn't clear whether Juarez, 52, had a lawyer. Police said he lived in the Bronx, but that the family had been living in Queens at the time of the killing. They also said Juarez claimed that a relative helped him dispose of the child's body.

Anjelica's naked, malnourished corpse was discovered on July 23, 1991, beside the Henry Hudson Parkway. Detectives thought she might have been suffocated but had few other clues as to what happened.

The case became an obsession for some investigators. Hundreds of people attended a funeral for the unknown girl in 1993. Her body was exhumed for DNA testing in 2007, and then again in 2011.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-nyc-make-arrest-death-baby-hope-20554295
NYC Police Arrest Relative in 'Baby Hope' Killing
October 13, 2013

Detectives solved the decades-old mystery of "Baby Hope," a little girl whose body was discovered inside a picnic cooler beside a Manhattan highway in 1991, and arrested a relative of the child Saturday after he admitted he sexually assaulted and smothered her, police said.

Conrado Juarez, 52, was arrested on a murder charge and was awaiting arraignment. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Juarez claimed he killed the girl at his sister's apartment and that she helped him dispose of the body. The sister has since died, police said. They were cousins of the little girl's father.

The girl's name, age and circumstances of her death were unknown for more than two decades. But earlier this week, police announced that a new tip and a DNA test had allowed them to finally identify the baby's mother, a dramatic turnaround in one of the city's more notorious cold cases.

On Saturday, they also revealed the girl's name: Anjelica Castillo, age 4.
 
Former detective Jerry Giorgio, who had the case from 1991 until his retirement over the summer, said he remained confident the case could be solved. Assistant Chief Joseph Reznick, who also worked the case, said they never gave up.

"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," Reznick said.

Giorgio left the NYPD and went to the Manhattan district attorney's cold case squad, from which he retired this year. "I missed the tipster call by a couple of weeks, damn it," he said.

The tipster, who saw the 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 Balvina Juarez-Ramirez, police said.

Juarez-Ramirez is the sister of Juarez. Police closed in on the suspect and waited for him Friday outside a Manhattan restaurant where he worked as a dishwasher. 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.

Her parents never reported her missing, though they had contact with the suspect. Juarez had never been considered a suspect before. Police refused to say whether he had previous arrests or had been accused in other sexual assaults.

Kelly called the arrest a superb case of detective work, and said he was proud of his officers.

"For me, it makes you proud to be a member of this organization — they were unrelenting," he said.

The detectives assigned to the case were instrumental in organizing a burial in a Bronx cemetery for the girl in 1993. Hundreds attended the funeral; Reznick gave the eulogy. The girl was dressed in a white frock and buried in a white coffin.

The detectives paid for the girl's headstone that reads: "Because we care."

On the tomb sit two little angels.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/baby-hope-mother-shocked-relieved-article-1.1484434
Baby Hope's mother Margarita Castillo was shocked and relieved to learn the fate of her daughter
October 14, 2013

The mother of Anjelica Castillo, the real name of cold-case victim Baby Hope, was both shocked and relieved to learn of the fate of her 4-year-old daughter, whose body was found in 1991. Twenty-two years later, cops have arrested the little girl's sex-fiend cousin Conrado Juarez, 52, who confessed to her murder


BRYAN PACE/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Grave site at St. Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx, for 'Baby Hope,' now identified as Anjelica Castillo.

As Baby Hope’s real name was finally placed on her tombstone Sunday, one of her sisters revealed their mother was shocked that a sex-fiend cousin had been collared in the cold-case killing.

A day after cops announced the case was solved, an unknown person printed Baby Hope’s name — Anjelica Castillo — on a piece of paper and taped it to her granite marker at St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx....More...

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Baby-Hope-Tombstone-Anjelica-Castillo-Bronx-Cemetery-232150851.html
Baby Hope's Tombstone Newly Engraved With Slain Girl's Real Name
Holy water and tears marked the unveiling of the headstone, newly engraved with the name Anjelica Castillo
November 18, 2013

[Nut44x4]

I was reading about this a couple of days ago and thought for sure we had a thread on her...no could find. Thanks for posting it.