Boston Woman Found Slain In NYC
eartha...@yahoo.com
Horror as popular Hub woman slain in NYC
By Jessica Fargen
Boston Herald
Monday, February 27, 2006 - Updated: 12:42 PM EST
A bright, beautiful Boston Latin School graduate was found apparently
strangled and dumped in a New York City lot - her naked body covered by
a blanket, her head entirely wrapped in duct tape, police sources told
the New York Post.
Imette St. Guillen, 24, was last seen alive at a trendy Lower East
Side night spot, the Pioneer Bar on the Bowery, early Saturday morning.
Her body was found Saturday night after she was reported missing.
St. Guillen, a graduate student in forensic studies at John Jay
University, was a 1999 graduate of the prestigious Boston Latin School,
according to a friend's Web site. She grew up on Francis Street in
the Longwood medical area in a red triple-decker where she lived with
her sister and her mother, a neighbor said.
"She was vivacious, beautiful," said Theresa Parks, an elderly
neighbor who watched St. Guillen grow up.
St. Guillen's friends left her around 3 a.m. Saturday at the
Pioneer Bar in lower Manhattan where the women had been partying,
police sources told the New York Post. She was found 17 hours later in
a vacant lot in an isolated area on Fountain Avenue in Brooklyn.
Police are awaiting autopsy results, but it appears she was
strangled to death and possibly sexually assaulted, police sources told
the newspaper. Her hands were bound behind her back.
Parks said St. Guillen's mother, Maureen, a widow, is devastated.
"Her poor mother. My heart aches for her," Parks said between
sobs. She said St. Guillen's mother was vacationing in Florida when
she got the news and was en route to New York last night.
"She was just one of those great kids any mother would be proud
of," Parks said.
St. Guillen went to George Washington University, according to a
high school classmate's Web site that has photos of St. Guillen and
her friends smiling on graduation day at Boston Latin in 1999. She
moved to New York City four years ago and was studying forensics at the
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she was on the dean's
list.
Parks described St. Guillen as cute and petite with black hair and
brown eyes. She was popular in high school and was always willing to
help out, Parks said.
Poe
> http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=128226
> Horror as popular Hub woman slain in NYC
> By Jessica Fargen
> Boston Herald
> Monday, February 27, 2006 - Updated: 12:42 PM EST
>
> A bright, beautiful Boston Latin School graduate was found apparently
> strangled and dumped in a New York City lot - her naked body covered by
> a blanket, her head entirely wrapped in duct tape, police sources told
> the New York Post.
Duct tape could == great prints!! Hope the perp didn't wear gloves :)
Kris Baker
"Poe" <throw...@nospam.us> wrote in message
news:44034B3...@nospam.us...
Gloves = fiber evidence.
The perp didn't want her to see him, so it's obviously someone she knew.
Kris
Poe
I'll bet the perp was not too careful. This sounds to me like whoever
she was partying with got trashed and did this at the spur of the
moment, or some on-looker whe was silently getting trashed and lusting
from afar. I bet they nail him PDQ.
Kris Baker
How many "spur of the moment" guys come equipped with
duct tape? You could be right, but I see this more as a
"You're pregnant...and I'm married!" kinda thing.
Kris
tiny dancer
Unless he usually travels with duct tape, I'm guessing it was planned. And
I don't think the perp had to have 'known her', as the article said 'her
whole head was wrapped in duct tape', not simply her eye area.
td
mcsqu...@netzero.net
I agree, it's more likely he didn't know her, so she couldn't identify
him. But why did her friends leave her at the bar at 3:00 am? I guess
she thought the guy was 'cool'. Very sad.
mc
Poe
My vote still goes to spur of the moment, guy she was drinking with in
the bar, who had a roll of duct tape in his pick-up truck. The tape over
the head thing probably started as a way to shut her up. Maybe the bit
about her head being completely covered is inaccurate, like one of those
clues that the cops figure only the perp can argue the details over.
eartha...@yahoo.com
Feb 27, 2006 9:34 pm US/Eastern
Boston Woman Murdered In New York City
(CBS4) NEW YORK CITY Police in New York City are searching for suspects
in the murder of a college student from Boston.
The body of 24-year-old Imette St. Guillen was discovered Saturday,
naked, bound in duct tape and wrapped in a carpet near the Belt Parkway
in East New York.
St. Guillen was last seen Friday by friends at the Pioneer Bar in
Manhattan.
Guillen graduated from Boston Latin School in 1999 and was pursuing her
master's degree at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New
York. She was scheduled to graduate at the end of this semester.
In a statement, college president Jeremy Travis said, "There are no
words to express the deep sadness and sense of loss that we, of the
John Jay College community, feel about the Ms. St. Guillen's tragic
death...The entire John Jay community joins together in extending our
heartfelt condolences to Ms. St. Guillen's family."
=================
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/27/medical_examiner_says_john_jay_college_student_was_strangled_1141088862/
Medical examiner says John Jay College student was strangled
Associated Press
February 27, 2006
NEW YORK --A criminal justice graduate student whose naked body was
dumped on the side of a road in a desolate area had been strangled and
suffocated, the medical examiner said Monday.
The death of Imette St. Guillen, who was originally from Boston, was
ruled a homicide, medical examiner's spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.
Police officers discovered St. Guillen's body at about 8:30 p.m.
Saturday in Brooklyn's East New York section after an anonymous 911
caller directed them there. Someone had bound the 24-year-old victim's
face, hands and feet with packaging tape before wrapping her in a
quilt.
Friends of the victim told police they last saw her at 3 a.m. at
Pioneer, a bar in the Bowery section of Lower Manhattan. Investigators
believe she was sexually assaulted before she was killed.
St. Guillen enrolled in the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in
2004, initially to pursue a master's degree in forensic psychology, and
was on the dean's list for 2004-05. In the fall of 2005 she changed her
field of study to criminal justice, school officials said.
"There are no words to express the deep sadness and sense of loss that
we, of the John Jay College community, feel about Ms. St. Guillen's
tragic death," college President Jeremy Travis said in a statement.
"The entire John Jay community joins together in extending our
heartfelt condolences to Ms. St. Guillen's family."
Professor Joshua Freilich echoed that sentiment.
"It's an ironic tragedy," he said. "She had everything going for her."
St. Guillen grew up in Boston and graduated from Boston Latin in 1999,
where she was on the track and swim teams, in the choir and a member of
the National Honor Society.
"I remember her as someone who was very much as part of the life of
this school. Bubbly, dark hair, beautiful eyes -- just someone other
young people gravitated to," Boston Latin principal Cornelia Kelley
told WCVB-TV.
Neighbors remembered St. Guillen, who earned an undergraduate degree
from George Washington University, with fondness. "I am heart broken
because she was a very nice person," neighbor Elza Dumornay told
WBZ-TV.
Her family winters in Florida and was in New York City on Monday night,
according to broadcast reports.
eartha...@yahoo.com
The body of Imette St. Guillen, 24, was found in a vacant lot on
Fountain Avenue in Brooklyn Saturday night. Her naked body was found
covered by a blanket with her head duct taped, her hands tied behind
her back and her ankles bound together. Authorities are awaiting
autopsy results, but police believe she was strangled and sexually
assaulted.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=3945856
Detectives filed into the Pioneer Bar on the Bowery today, where the
victim was last seen alive early Saturday. A few hours later and nine
miles away would come the grisly discovery: the body of Imette Saint
Guillen was dumped in East New York.
The 24-year-old was naked, had been strangled, her face was covered
with duct tape. The brutal nature of the crime came as a shock to
neighbors in her quiet Upper West Side building.
snip
Saint Guillen lived with roommates on West End Avenue, where today
loved ones left without comment. On Friday the group had traveled to
the Pioneer Bar on the Lower East Side. Saint Guillen stayed behind
after her friends left. Investigators hope video tape from surveillance
cameras will help them figure out who cut short such a promising life.
eartha...@yahoo.com
By AL BAKER
New York Times
Published: February 28, 2006
Detectives yesterday were retracing the last steps of a 24-year-old
graduate student who disappeared after a night out in Manhattan and
whose body was found, wrapped in a quilt, late Saturday in a desolate
corner of Brooklyn off the Belt Parkway.
The woman, Imette St. Guillen, was studying at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice in Manhattan, where she was remembered as a smart,
sophisticated student. Teachers and administrators at George Washington
University, where she was an undergraduate, and at Boston Latin School,
where she went to high school, said she had done well there.
She had been sexually assaulted, strangled and suffocated, officials
said, and detectives were trying to determine where she was killed and
when and whether her killer was someone she knew, someone she had just
met or a stranger.
According to the police, Ms. St. Guillen's friends told investigators
that they last saw her about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, at the Pioneer Bar
on the Bowery.
She stayed behind when her friends left, but she spoke to one of them
by cellphone around 3 a.m., their last contact with her, the police
said. It was unclear if Ms. St. Guillen went to other nightspots after
that, the police said, and detectives were trying to learn how she got
to Brooklyn.
On Saturday night, about 8:43, an anonymous caller dialed 911 and said
there was a body lying near Fountain Avenue by the Belt Parkway, on the
southern rim of East New York in Brooklyn. Ms. St. Guillen's unclothed
body was found inside a quilt. Her mouth was sealed with packing tape,
and her head, feet and hands were bound with more tape, officials said.
She was identified after her cousin, who was concerned because she was
missing, contacted the police on Sunday after seeing news reports about
a body found in Brooklyn.
An autopsy found that Ms. St. Guillen died of asphyxia caused by the
compression of her neck and the covering of her mouth and nose, said
Ellen S. Borakove, a spokeswoman for Charles S. Hirsch, the chief
medical examiner.
Investigators were trying to determine if she was recorded on any video
cameras at the bar or elsewhere, the police said.
Yesterday, yellow crime scene tape tied to two telephone poles marked
the reed-covered spot where her body was found. To the east, Canada
geese landed and took flight from the wetlands of Spring Creek Park. To
the west, across Seaview Avenue, a string of large stores are on the
horizon.
At the building on West End Avenue on the Upper West Side where Ms. St.
Guillen lived in a basement apartment, young people came and went
yesterday, remaining silent. Two detectives arrived at 1 p.m., went
inside, and left an hour later. About 2:30, some people carried out
cardboard boxes and a painting, got into a car with Massachusetts
license plates and drove off.
Ms. Guillen came to New York in 2004 to pursue a master's degree in
forensic psychology at John Jay but changed her field of study to
criminal justice last fall, said Jeremy Travis, the college president.
She was on the dean's list, which requires a 3.5 grade point average,
and was scheduled to graduate this semester, the school said.
"She wrote very well," said Joshua Freilich, an associate professor in
the sociology department, her teacher in an introductory course last
spring. "She stood out in that regard."
He said she was in the top 5 percent of the class, and was a serious
student. She also volunteered in the undergraduate honors
teaching-assistant program.
"She had a million and one options going for her," said Professor
Freilich. One student, Jake Berrick, who said he was an acquaintance,
said the mood on campus yesterday was "pretty somber."
"She was the sweetest," he said.
Ms. St. Guillen graduated magna cum laude from George Washington, in
the District of Columbia, in 2003, said Wendy Carey, a spokeswoman
there. She majored in criminal justice.
Professor Freilich said he remembered speaking with Ms. St. Guillen
about an article written by William Chambliss, a George Washington
professor who wrote a letter of recommendation for her.
As far back as her days at Boston Latin, she was remembered as someone
who tutored younger students, said Cornelia A. Kelley, the headmistress
there. Ms. St. Guillen was on the swim and track teams and the prom
committee and was a representative in the student council, she said.
"She could have been tutoring anything because she was such a good
student," Ms. Kelley said.
No one answered the door yesterday at her family's apartment in Boston,
across the street from Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Yesterday, detectives visited the Pioneer Bar at least three times and
walked around the Bowery neighborhood, asking questions.
Ms. St. Guillen's friends had been looking around on their own before
they learned of her death.
At the Spring Lounge at Spring and Mulberry Streets, a sheet of paper
rested on a wooden shelf behind the bar. It showed two photocopied
photographs of Ms. St. Guillen posing with friends. It listed her
height and weight.
On the right side of the page, the word, "Missing," was written. Below
the pictures it said, "If you have seen this woman at any time since
Feb. 25, please call." And then it listed the names of two of her
friends, and their phone numbers.
Reporting for this article was contributed by Colin Moynihan, Jeremy
Smerd and Matthew Sweeney from New York and David Schwab from Boston.
JonesieCat
<eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1141104317.0...@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
Out of character for her to be gone so long, apparently... I hope the quilt
she was found wrapped in yields some clues. And the video. It's easy to
suspect someone she may have encountered thru her criminal justice studies
may have begun stalking her - a fellow student perhaps, rather than a
someone who might have been the subject of study before she changed majors?
JC
eartha...@yahoo.com
> At the Spring Lounge at Spring and Mulberry Streets, a sheet of paper
> rested on a wooden shelf behind the bar. It showed two photocopied
> photographs of Ms. St. Guillen posing with friends. It listed her
> height and weight.
>
>From the New York Post:
She was described as 5-foot-3 and 115 pounds.
snip
Staffers and patrons at the Pioneer Bar were upset.
"It makes me sick to my stomach," said the bartender, who worked
Friday.
He said that the bar was quiet for a Friday night and that the crowd
seemed very relaxed.
"I didn't notice any funny behavior. It was a slow night - a much
older crowd," he said.
He said most of the patrons that evening were in their late 20s and
early 30s and that the bar would have been closing when the friends
left.
Sources said detectives were looking for video footage that may have
captured St. Guillen in the area that night.
mcsqu...@netzero.net
Poe wrote:
> My vote still goes to spur of the moment, guy she was drinking with in
> the bar, who had a roll of duct tape in his pick-up truck. The tape over
> the head thing probably started as a way to shut her up. Maybe the bit
> about her head being completely covered is inaccurate, like one of those
> clues that the cops figure only the perp can argue the details over.
The awful update of the rape (the ME had never seen anything like it)
says this guy wasn't exactly new to this. I thought at first she met a
guy at the bar with her friends, but this was likely at the bar she
went to alone...at nearly 4 in the morning. Why? Unless she got in a
fight with them (she was arguing with one about leaving) But leave her
alone? I know, everyone was drunk. I feel just awful for her mother
and sister and all who loved her.
mc