‘Serial killer’ Arrested for Killing Three, Elderly Women in Same Building
New York City NY January 25 2021 Police have arrested a serial killer who has been linked to the murders of three elderly women in the same Brooklyn NYCHA building, officials said Thursday.
The man, who is in his 60s, was taken into custody Thursday for the three killings inside the same Powell St. address at the Woodson Houses. The murders stretch back to 2015 and have left residents living in terror.
His most recent victim, Juanita Caballero, 78, was found inside her Powell Ave. apartment dead with a cord wrapped around her neck about 5 p.m. Friday. NYPD public housing cops have been stationed at the building since Friday’s murder.
She was found by her adult son after arriving for a visit at her home near Dumont Ave. in Brownsville, police said.
The medical examiner determined the cause of death was asphyxia.
Two other seniors were murdered in their homes in the same building, in 2015 and in 2019. None of the cases have been solved.
The first killing in November 2015 involved Myrtle McKinney, 82, who was found dead on her kitchen floor by police. Initially treated as a death by natural causes, the case was later ruled a homicide after an undertaker noticed a knife wound on the back of her neck. She also suffered three broken ribs.
Four years later, in May 2019, Jacolia James, 83, was found dead in her apartment on the 11th floor of the same building, with trauma to her head and torso.
“I am ecstatic if they have charged and arrested someone in the crime,” Lynda James, daughter of Jacolia James, said Thursday. “It breaks my heart that it took another loss for it to happen. Does it provide closure? I don’t know that it provides closure for me. It just causes guilt that maybe I could have provided more to stop the third from happening.”
