Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Perp Leaves His Bloody Jeans by Young Mom's Body, Wears Her Leotards to Escape

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Denisse Oleas-Arancibia has not been in touch with her son and is worried something has happened. As her son reports her missing in Queens, where she lives, the front desk at the SoHo 54 Hotel on Watts Street is being asked to perform a wellness check on one of their guests. Despite a "do not disturb" sign on the door, a hotel employee entered the room and saw the 38-year-old Oleas-Arancibia lying covered with a blanket. She looked like she was resting so the employee quickly backed out of the room and reported to the front desk that the guest was sleeping. Police, following up on the missing person report filed by her son, end up at the SoHo 54 Hotel in Manhattan. It is around 10:30 a.m. when a maid enters the room and realizes that Denisse Oleas-Arancibia is not sleeping, but rather, the blanket has been used to cover the body of a woman who has been beaten to death.  Police arrive at room 1190 on the 11th floor of the SoHo 54 Hotel and find a bloody crime scene with evidence left behind by the possible killer.  The victim has been beaten and strangled, and there are fragments of plastic embedded in her head and an iron covered in blood next to her. Police catch a break when they find a pair of blood-soaked men's pants with a receipt. Police find surveillance video of the man in the leggings walking through the lobby and immediately begin their hunt. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny says police have video of the woman arriving at the location wearing a distinct pair of leggings and later on a male, leaving the hotel wearing the same leggings. And of course, the male pants covered in blood left behind in the hotel room Investigators say they can track the suspect's movements through the victim's credit card and MetroCard the suspect allegedly stole and is using. As investigators are identifying their suspect in New York,  Arizona Police have their hands full with a one-man crime wave. On February 17, in Phoenix, Arizona, an attempted carjacking and stabbing happen. The next morning, February 18 at 8:30 a.m. in Surprise Arizona,  a man goes into a McDonald's women's restroom, crawls under a stall door, and threatens a McDonald's employee with a gun. She screams and he stabs her several times before fleeing the facility. Police arrive at the McDonalds in Surprise Arizona but the suspect has fled on foot. Employees get out a good description of the man and in a matter of minutes, someone matching his description steals a car.  Surprise, Phoenix, and Scottsdale Police are all alerted and looking for the stolen car when the Scottsdale Police see the vehicle and get a good look at the suspect driving. He is pulled over and police take 26-year-old Raad Almansoori into custody. Joining Nancy Grace Today: James Shelnutt – Attorney – The Shelnutt Law Firm, P.C.; 27-year Atlanta Metro Area Major Case Detective and Former S.W.A.T. Officer; X: @ShelnuttLawFirm Caryn L. Stark – Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Instagram: carynpsych/FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice Tom Smith - Former NYPD Detective, Co-Host of the "GOLD SHIELDS" Podcast; FB & Instagram: @thegoldshieldshow   Dr. Howard Robin -  Forensic Pathologist, LJ Pathology Consultants Joe Hutchison - (NYC) News Reporter for DailyMail.com; X: @JoeHutchison_ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Have you ever stayed in a hotel and the cleaners come while you're still in there and they knock on the door or just come in and then they leave and wait for you to get out. Let me tell you what happened at the Soho 54 Hotel. The cleaners go in the room. There's a do not disturb sign on the door, but it's been there for a while. So the maid goes in and she sees a lady sleeping or so she thinks.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories and on Sirius XM 111. Take a listen to our friend Dave Mack at Crime Online. At the Soho 54 Hotel, a hotel maid goes into room 1109, even though there is a Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the door. The maid walks in and sees what she thinks is a person asleep under a blanket. She quickly, quietly backs out of the room and reports to the manager what she has seen, a woman asleep under a blanket. All of you legal eagles know full well what's coming next. Joining me in all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first, I want to go to investigative reporter for DailyMail.com, Joe Hutchinson, joining us out of this jurisdiction in New York. Joe,

thank you for being with us. So it's my understanding that about the time the first First maid goes into room 1109. The staff, the hotel staff of Soho 24 in the lobby, sees something that they believe to be very unusual. What did they observe in the lobby of Soho 54? The hotel staff observed a man wearing leggings, women's leggings, walking through the hotel lobby and exiting the building. And that alone, a man wearing leggings, would not pique my interest at all. But what was unusual about this man wearing leggings? I think the CCTV footage, you can kind of see it. It's very strange.

It's not, it's very ill-fitting of him. And then I also am aware that hotel staff found men's trousers in the room. Joe Hutchinson joining us from DailyMail.com. You're absolutely correct. There is something very off-putting about that. Look at it, Shell Nut. You're not just a high-profile lawyer joining us from the shell nut firm you were 27 years on metro major case there's something very wrong with that let's just say they're way too tight

in too many crevices on this guy it doesn't match he's dressed like he't know, a windbreaker and a crew neck sweater. He's wearing a hat, shoes, but then he's wearing these incredibly thin, ill-fitting, super tight tights. Almost see-through-able tights. It doesn't fit together. Any trained observer would think, okay, that's weird. Shelnut. Yeah, so this is something that would absolutely catch your attention. It's something where you would have to wonder, is this person mentally all there?

Is this person under the influence of some type of alcohol or drugs? What would cause this person to dress like this? And it's certainly going to be something that would catch your attention because it is outside the norm of what you would see. But Tom Smith joining me, former NYPD detective, now co-host Gold Shields podcast. Tom, the guy may look odd in the, let me just say, ill-fitting ladies tights, but he's acting perfectly normally.

So it's just a fashion felony at this juncture. He's walking across the lobby in an odd getup, but he's acting normally. Well, that's exactly right. And he's in New York. And through my 30 years in the NYPD, I've seen some wild get ups walking around the streets of New York. And if you're doing it in front of everyone and acting normal and just walking, you're going to fit in. You're going to look like everybody else, especially if he doesn't do anything else to bring attention to himself. But just walking, you know, he's taking advantage of what New York City is made up of.

Well, truer words were never spoken. I raised the twins there for several years before we moved. And this would have been, you know, a day in the park with the guy dressed oddly, but acting normally. OK, so this is what I know. Back to Joe Hutchinson, investigative reporter, DailyMail.com. They notice him walking by. Nobody thinks anything of it. Then either the same maid or another maid goes back to room 1109.

What happens? So hotel staff return to the room. They go into the room and they find this woman on the floor covered in a blanket. And they also find a broken iron. And we believe that the iron is kind of bloodied as well. And then obviously police are called to the scene. Wait, I believe, sir, you are missing a very critical clue. Yes, they see the sleeping woman, and of course I'm using air

quotas, still asleep under a blanket, which I'm going to circle back to Tom Smith and Karen Stark and Dr. Howard Robin about staging a crime scene. They find the woman asleep under a blanket. They find correctly, as Joe Hutchinson described, a broken iron, not a curling iron, an iron that you iron clothes, used to iron clothes, a broken iron with blood on it. And they find one more thing next to the body, Joe Hutchinson. What? They find a pair of man's trousers that are also bloodstained. Very important. Critical fact. Man's trousers covered in blood. Correct me if I'm wrong, Tom Smith, but two plus two still equals four, right? Yes, it does, ma'am. So they've got the

surveillance video of a guy walking out and kind of sheer women's tights and the rest is dressed like a regular guy. Then they find a sleeping lady upstairs next to an iron and man's pants covered in blood. And could you tell me the condition, Joe Hutchinson, of the sleeping woman? She was found dead. One force trauma to the head. They found pieces of plastic embedded in her skull as well. Pieces of plastic. Interesting.

I wonder if that's plastic from the iron itself or some other form of plastic. Tom Hutchinson, any inside information you could give me about the plastic found embedded in the victim's head? Right now, we're not exactly 100% sure where the plastic came from, but a broken iron, maybe there's been some dislodged pieces left there. We're not 100% sure yet. It's not being made clear. The reason I'm asking is I want to go to Dr. Howard Robin, joining us from La Jolla, California, San Diego, forensic pathologist at LJ Pathology Consultants. Dr. Robin, thank you so much for being with us. This is taking me back to my very first homicide I ever tried in front of a jury. And when I opened the file, the first thing I saw, and it shouldn't have been there for anyone to see that opened the file or could look over my shoulder was a

Polaroid autopsy photo. And I remember as I prepped for the trial going to the morgue and saying, what are these uh, uh, dot on the inside of her mouth on her lips and it was plastic because she had been asphyxiated with one of those clear laundry bags. And as she tried to breathe, she inhaled the plastic bag so ferociously trying to live that the plastic stuck to her mouth and the inside of her nostrils. Plastic on the victim's mouth. Now we hear Dr. Howard Robin about a broken iron with blood on it and the woman hit so

hard in the head that there are pieces of plastic embedded in her skin and scalp. What's your opinion, doctor? She was hit with an iron that has plastic molding on the outside. And it was, her head was struck with such force that the plastic broke off and embedded in her skull as described in the news reports. I'm just trying to figure out how much force would be required to actually break the iron on this woman's head. Only be able to say significant force. And it's not uncommon for homicides to be secondary to blunt force trauma to the head. And that it could either be from an object such as an iron or blunt force trauma to the head

and led to the bleeding, and the bleeding led to blood on the trousers of the perpetrator. You know, Karen Stark is joining me in addition to our other all-star panel guests, renowned TV and radio trauma expert, psychologist, consultant at KarenStark.com. That's Karen with a C. Karen, the rage that must have accompanied this attack to be so angry and so full of hate that you actually break an iron on an unarmed woman's head? Without a doubt, Nancy, this is such a disorganized guy, impulsive. You can just tell because there's a lot about the scene that doesn't make sense. He bothers to put on these tights so he can walk around in New York City and not be seen with bloody pants, but

that's evidence. And then he puts a cover over the body. And that would lead me to believe that he wants somebody to enter the room and think that there's just a person sleeping there. And then this rage, this horrible rage that's coming out in killing the person, which leads you to believe that this is not the first time he's done something like this. It's so impulsive and disorganized. It's pretty unusual. You know what it's reminding me of, Karen Stark, and you were with me when this happened. You know, my longtime friend and colleague, even though he's a defense attorney, he's a renowned defense attorney in the California jurisdiction, Daniel Horowitz. I do, yes.

I was out in California, and you were covering it for me, with me, here in New York when Scott Peterson went to trial. And I had dinner with Daniel and his wife, Pam. The next day or a few days later, I got a call from Daniel Horowitz in police custody. His wife had been brutally murdered. Well, of course, I knew Daniel Horowitz had nothing to do with it. It was a very bloody crime scene. And I was talking to him privately. I was at work at HLN and I left the makeup room and was talking to him on the cell phone. And I said, well, Daniel, just tell me anything you can tell me about the scene. Was anything taken?

I've heard no. And he went, just one thing, my blue jeans. Daniel Horowitz is very thin. He's about 5, seven or eight. And I remember I felt a cold chill go down me because I thought, why would the killer take nothing except your jeans? Were you wearing your jeans? And were you wearing something else and changed into your jeans because your clothes were bloody?

I'm like, don't tell anybody those jeans are missing for Pete's sake. Or cops are going to think you did it and changed from the bloody clothes into the clean jeans. And I just felt a horrible heaviness. Why would someone take the jeans? Well, as it turned out, of course, Daniel Horowitz, who was in deep, deep grief, so in love with his wife, we find out that the perp, while he couldn't really squeeze into the jeans that well, was a very thin teen that lived in the neighborhood. And because of a screw up in the mail, Daniel's wife, Pam Vitale had gotten info in the mail about hydroponic pot farming. And that's what he, the defendant was doing. And he had to murder her because he thought she was onto it.

See what I mean? My point is, he left the scene in Daniel's blue jeans because his clothes were so covered in blood. Do you see what I'm saying, Karen Stark? Someone that is so cold and calculated, they know they've got to stage the scene and change their clothes. Rot in hell, Dylaski. Just FYI. Go ahead. That he did this in the scene with Daniel Horowitz, this kid did it just so that he

wouldn't be discovered, that he wouldn't. He was willing to kill someone, actually take a life so he wouldn't be discovered by the police that he was doing this with the farming i mean it's just it's somebody who has so much rage rage yes rage yes but angry like a fox also wily and cunning at the same time as a blinding rage because he thought to stage the scene. I mean, shall not staging the scene. It could be, um, making a scene.

Look as if the victim had committed suicide, wiping the gun and putting it in the victim's hands. It could be covering the body to make it look like she's sleeping. So there will be a delay in catching the perp. Yes. No. Yes. I agree. A hundred percent. You 100%. Normally when someone stages a scene,

it is for one of a couple of purposes. It's to throw off investigators, whether it's in the initial investigation or to give time to escape. It can be for some type of perversion that they have. It can be to shock the investigators to get some type of continued enjoyment out of this scene because the investigators or the people finding the victim are so shocked by it. But yes, I agree

that staging the scene for this guy to have more time to get away could be one, but there could be several reasons also that he staged the scene as well. Such as? Such as getting some type of sexual perversion out of this, such as trying to get a reaction out of the investigators who were to find or look at this body. So it could be, it certainly could be and likely was that he was buying some time to get away. But it also could be that he's getting some type of pleasure out of this after he's already left. You know what? Sometimes I think you and I have been hanging around criminals too long. If you think somebody's getting off on beating a woman dead with an iron and then wearing her leggings, but I'm not saying that you're internally wrong.

The story doesn't end there. Now, remember, this is in New York City. Now, think Arizona. Listen to our friend Dave Mack at Crime Online. A man wearing women's leggings is seen walking through the lobby of the hotel as he exits onto the streets of Manhattan. Purchasing a plane ticket from New York to Arizona, Rad Al-Mansouri is in Phoenix, Arizona when he stabs a woman during a failed carjacking attempt on February 17th. The next day, February 18th, around 8.30 a.m., in Surprise, Arizona,

Almanzori attacks a McDonald's employee in a bathroom stall in an attempted rape, but she screams, so he stabs her and flees the scene on foot. Police arrive, and a description of Almanzori is put out over police radios. In minutes, a man matching his description steals a car. Scottsdale police see the stolen vehicle with Almanzori behind the wheel and pull him over. Almanzori is taken into custody. Red is Miranda Rice. Joe Hutchinson joining us from DailyMail.com. Isn't it true that as soon as this mother's body is found under a blanket in Soho 54 in Manhattan, police tried to track the suspect's movements through the victim's credit cards and her MetroCard.

Yeah, police informed us that part of the investigation was tracing his credit card usage, which is being used through the Metro system. And after four days, he purchased a plane ticket to Arizona and flew out there from Newark Airport. So the guy is so cold, he brutalizes the woman. I'm sure he raped her, then brutalized her, leaves her dead, wears her clothes. Then he uses her MetroCard and credit card.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Tom Smith, former NYPD detective, host of Gold Shields podcast, which is awesome, by the way, Tom Smith, explain to everybody that doesn't have to take the subway every day. What is a MetroCard? A MetroCard is basically a credit card for the subway. You just swipe it. You have a certain amount on your card that you can up, you know, by month. And it's a simple swipe and you go through the turnstile to get on whatever train you want and you know if you live there you got to know how to use a subway my twins david i all use a subway because you can either use a subway or you can take a cab

or a bus that will take you an hour to get across town you might hoof it and get there faster than a cab, but the way to go is the subway. So how did they do it, Tom Smith? You're the former NYPD detective. She, the victim, must have purchased the MetroCard with a credit card because they could then trace it back to her. Or the perp could have used her credit card to buy a MetroCard. That's correct. That's a big part of the investigation, which we'll get further into.

But the stealing and using of the credit card is going to be a big factor in this because it ties into the scene, first of all. Then it also gets him track from the scene and then wherever he's going to end up. And the purchasing of the airline ticket is his escaping method. So all of that is going to come into play when you start backtracking on the case to put him at the scene. So who is this woman in order to solve a murder? And I've tried cases where I did not know the identity of the victim. Very hard to do. But at the same time all of this is happening,

the son of the victim is desperately trying to find his mother. Take a listen to Sydney Sumner, Crime Online. Denise Oleus Arancibia has not been in touch with her son and he is very worried something has happened. As her son reports her missing in Queens where she lives, the front desk at the Soho 54 Hotel on Watt Street is being asked to perform a wellness check on one of their guests. Despite a do not disturb sign on the door, a hotel employee entered the room and saw the 38 year old Oleus Arancibia lying covered with a blanket. She looked like she was resting, so the employee quickly backs out of the room and reports to the front desk that the guest is sleeping. And more from Nicole Parton, Crime Online. Police following up on a missing person report filed by

her son end up at the Soho 54 Hotel in Manhattan. It is around 10 30 a.m. when a maid enters the room and realizes that Denise Elias Arancibia is not sleeping under the blanket. The blanket has been used to cover the bloody body of a woman who has been beaten to death. Police arrive to room 1190 on the 11th floor of the Soho 54 hotel and find a bloody crime scene with evidence clearly left behind by a possible killer. The victim has been beaten, strangled, and there are fragments of plastic embedded in her head and an iron covered in blood next to her. Police catch a break when they find a pair of blood-soaked men's pants with a receipt. To Tom Smith, former NYPD detective, host of Gold Shields podcast, Tom, I think it's a whole nother layer of complexity,

a whole nother type of defendant that can rape or murder a woman so brutally, sneak out wearing her clothes and then use her credit card and MetroCard. And you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of Brian Laundrie after he takes Gabby Petito, his fiancee, out west, murders her, leaves her in dispersed camping where nobody will find her but a pack of wolves. Then he uses her van that she has completely redone to try in which to travel cross country, her credit cards and her cell phone. I mean, I think every time I would have picked up that cell phone, my hand would have burned because he had just killed her. Same with this guy, Tom Smith. Yeah. You know what? But a lot of times the police work, we don't rely on criminals being smart. And that makes our job

a little easier sometimes. And you have to think, you know, he's in a panic. He's maybe thinking too much. And whatever's right in front of him as an escape route, he's going to use the same thing in the Gabby Petito case. Whatever's there that he can utilize to get away from the scene and get out of New York as quick as possible, he's going to use. And that's, they're not thinking intelligently. They're in a rush and they're under a lot of stress and pressure to get away from that scene. Well, whose fault is that? It's their fault for committing a murder. Absolutely right. You know, and that's what I mean.

You know, we rely sometimes on criminals not being smart and being, not thinking something through and just being impulsive with what they do. I don't know about that, Smith, because he somehow managed to elude NYPD and get on a plane, hello, and get all the way out to Arizona. If he hadn't started a one-man crime wave out in Arizona, he'd probably still be walking free right now. So I don't know how dumb he is. Oh, he's not.

No, no, no. I didn't mean dumb. You know, sometimes impulsive actions that they do after crimes are dumb. Not the overall thought process of what he is. Yes. I don't mean that by any stretch. He's intelligent because he had a plan and he acted on that plan. Let's see what this world-class jackass did out in Arizona.

Take a listen to Nicole Parton, Crime Stories. Investigators say they are able to track the suspect's movement through the victim's credit card and metro card the suspect allegedly stole and is using. As investigators are identifying their suspect in New York, police in Arizona have their hands full with a one-man crime wave. On February 17, in Phoenix, Arizona, an attempted carjacking and stabbing. The next morning, February 18, at 8.30 a.m. in Surprise, Arizona, a man goes into a McDonald's women's restroom, crawls under a stall door, and threatens a McDonald's employee with a gun. She screams, and he stabs her several times before fleeing the facility. I don't get it.

The guy is on the run for a murder, Karen Stark. And what does he do? Go straight in the woman's bathroom and try to rape another lady in Arizona. I thought he went to Arizona to get away from the murder he committed in New York. He goes straight to Arizona and tries to rape a woman. Well, he can't stop himself, Nancy. This is what he does. This is a sexually motivated guy and clearly also motivated by violence. So, yeah, he may have run away so he won't get caught, but he can't stop himself from wanting to attack people. That's his M.O. Amazing. He could not control himself long enough to get in the clear. Well, it ain't over yet. He tries to rape the woman in the stall in the bathroom at McDonald's. He's foiled and he goes running

on foot. He actually gets away again. That's not the end of the story. Listen to Rachel Bonilla. Police arrived to the McDonald's in Surprise, Arizona, but the suspect has fled on foot. Employees get out a good description of the man in a matter of minutes. Someone matching his description steals a car. Surprise, Phoenix, and Scottsdale Police are all alerted and looking for the stolen car when Scottsdale Police see the vehicle and get a good look at the suspect driving. He is pulled over and police take 26-year-old Rod Alamassori into custody. Shellnut.

James Shellnut, before you're a high-profile lawyer, which you are now with a Shellnut law firm, 27 years Metro major case. This idiot kills, murders a woman in New York. Somehow gets away from police police using the victim's Metro card and credit card, buys a plane ticket. Hello? What?

Isn't there security at LaGuardia, JFK in Newark? That's a whole nother can of worms. He flies, gets a ticket, probably with her stolen credit card, flies to Arizona and immediately starts committing violent felonies. I mean, now, after trying to rape a woman in a stall, he runs from that crime and steals a car. He steals a car. I mean, I give up. I just throw my notes in the air. Yeah, this guy's a serial criminal.

I mean, this guy, I would be wondering where he was at before he was in New York. Yeah, you're right. Good point. How many other people has he killed? Oh, exactly. New York may not have been his first stop in his series of stabbings and homicides. Who is this guy? Where is he from? Joe Hutchinson, do we know where this guy is from? What we do know is that he seems to have family in Arizona. And one outlet in New York has now spoke to one family member in particular who said it didn't sound like he had the greatest of upbringings. She called him a misogynist from childhood and said he was also a bipolar schizophrenic. Wait a minute. Who called him a misogynist from childhood and said he was also a bipolar schizophrenic. Wait a minute. Who called him a misogynist?

His half-sister. The half-sister. OK. Yeah, she spoke to the New York Daily News and said that he used to exhibit delusions and that he felt compelled to kill his own pet snake as well. I'm now learning that he has three alleged assaults in Florida, and there's an ongoing investigation of him in Texas. This guy's all over the map. I'm not surprised he's committing all the felonies because he's an animal,

but I am surprised nobody's put him behind bars. And I personally blame Tom Smith and James Shilnut, who are on the panel right now. But wait a minute. Wait for it. Wait for it, everybody. Take a listen to Rachel Bonilla. Wait, wait. It's worth it.

Once in the police car and read his rights, Rod Alamassori starts talking. He tells police about the attempted carjacking and stabbing that he did the previous day in Phoenix. Police are surprised because they hadn't had the chance to mention it to him. But even before they make it to the police station, he tells them they should Google Soho 54. How many times I hope my twins are not listening because I gave up cursing when they were born. Having worked for decades around felons, cops, you name it, you get a pretty nasty mouth, okay? But how many jackasses have you heard say, Google it. Google it.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Joe Hutchinson joining me, investigative reporter, DailyMail.com. Did he actually tell the cops to Google Soho 54? He did, yeah. He told police in Phoenix to Google the hotel that he was wanted for homicide in New York City. And that is when police in Phoenix contacted the NYPD and told them we may have someone of interest in the case. Well, that's not all he told them. Listen to Nicole Parton, Crime Stories. Police follow Rod Almanzori's suggestion and Google Soho 54.

As they read about the unsolved murder and pictures of the man walking through the lobby in women's leggings, the police in Arizona have some good news for the police in New York. Police have already identified Almanzori as their suspect. Now they know where he is. However, being loquacious, Almanzori tells police he thinks he may have hurt three women in Florida. May have hurt three women in Florida. I'm afraid to ask Joe Hutchinson, are there three more dead women in Florida? We're not 100 ask Joe Hutchinson. Are there three more dead women in Florida? We're not 100% sure yet, but we do know that last April, he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a sex worker and was, we believe, jailed for it before he paid his bail in September last year,

which allowed him the ability to travel and to go up to New York City. Take a listen to Joseph Kinney, chief of detectives in YPD. He has been previously arrested in Florida, Texas and Arizona. His most notable out-of-state arrests include an April 2023 arrest in Sumter County, Florida, where he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a female. He was arrested on that charge and later posted his bail, his own bail on that charge in September of 2023. You know what that tells me, James Shelnut? He posted his own bail. He kidnapped and sex

assaulted a woman and he got a low bail. He could post his own bail from the jail. Somebody let him walk, Shelnut. Of course the jail. Somebody let him walk. Shelnut? Of course they did. They let him walk and they gave him a license to do it again. Someone should be ashamed of letting this animal back out on the street. It's unacceptable. We are learning more from Joseph Kinney, chief of detectives, NYPD.

Listen. On February 17th, 2024, just nine days after our victim was discovered in New York City, he committed a knife point carjacking in Phoenix, Arizona, where he stabbed his female victim. He managed to escape that scene. The very next day, in Surprise, Arizona, he dragged a female employee of a McDonald's into the ladies' room, held her against her will, and stabbed her several times. This time, he did not escape Arizona law enforcement. He was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, while driving a stolen car. While in the custody of Arizona law enforcement, he informs them that he is wanted for homicide in New York City and tells the cops that they should Google Soho 54 Hotel. We're learning from Chief of Detectives Joseph Kinney more about the investigation that stopped a one-man crime wave for now,

unless some moron lets him out on bail. Listen. In addition to the alerts, the NYPD had put on the subject, called Arizona authorities to contact us. We are currently working with our partners in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to arrange extradition back to New York City so he can be charged for the homicide here. We are also working with the FBI and their violent criminal apprehension program to explore the possibility of discovering additional victims as the subject told Arizona cops that he hurt three additional girls in Florida. And Chief Kinney lays out a timeline.

Our timeline is on January 26th, he purchases a plane ticket from Florida to New York. On 1-29, we know he has credit card usage in New York City, so he arrives somewhere in that three-day span. On 2-6, he visits an escort in Upper Manhattan. Between 2-7 and 2-8. We have our homicide at the Soho Hotel. On 2-12, he flies back to Arizona out of Newark Airport. 2-17, he does the carjacking in Arizona. 2-18, he stabs a woman in McDonald's and is subsequently arrested. If this guy had been apprehended on all of his many, many other

brutal assaults on women, this mother would be alive right now. Joe Hutchinson, where does the case stand now? Well, right now, I believe the New York District Attorney's Office have sent an officer out to Phoenix to have him extradited. But I also believe that formal charges are going to be filed later today in Arizona. They may have already done it by now. It's still kind of early over there, so I'm not 100% sure yet. But then we were told yesterday that the case, the extradition case, could take weeks. It could take months. So we just have to wait and see. Dr. Howard Robin, forensic pathologist. In a nutshell, could you tell me what a neck compression ending in death means?

Well, the neck compression could either be throttling, where the perpetrator used their hands in order to strangle the victim or it could be due to a ligature. There's a difference between strangulation and throttling. In strangulation it's not necessarily one's hands that are used in order to put pressure on the neck structures, but one could use a knee or some other body part. But if this was manual strangulation, they would find discoid lesions or thumbprints or fingerprints on the neck, but they're only observed in about 50% of strangulations. If it was a ligature strangulation, they would find a circular indentation around the neck. A ligature was not found at the scene, more likely than not, this was a throttling or strangulation of the neck.

And the important studies to perform would be dissection of the neck, looking for hemorrhage in the muscles in the neck, as well as fractures of the voice box, the larynx, or of the hyoid bone. And then, of course, looking at the eyes to see if there are small hemorrhages or petechial hemorrhages that would be secondary to obstruction of the jugular vein that drains blood from the head, and that leads to these small hemorrhages in the conjunctiva. So additional information from the autopsy would help us understand what this means by compression of the neck. It's more likely than not that the strangulation occurred or the compression of the neck occurred after she had sustained the head injury. And that's probably how blood then contaminated the pants of the perpetrator. You're hearing renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Howard Robin.

And my point in obtaining that explanation is this. Many people think that rage is a defense. It is not. Anger is not a defense. Also, premeditation is required for a conviction on malice, murder. And under the law, intent malice can be formed in the twinkling of a moment, the neck of this mother, this young mom, every millisecond he held her by the neck is time to form intent which equals murder one. Not voluntary, not involuntary. He needs jail for life or worse.

Nancy, if I could jump in for just a moment. This is John Lemley in the Crime Online newsroom. A judge in Arizona has decided not to transfer Al-Mansouri to New York to stand trial for the horrific killing that took place inside a hotel there. So the 26-year-old Amansuri will stay put for the attempted stabbing murders there in Arizona, this according to a statement from Court Commissioner Barbara Spencer. As of right now, he is behind bars without bond. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.