N.J.: Killer Of Girl Is Arrested Five Years After Her Murder...
Slimpickins
Suspect charged in 1995 killing of Camden
girl
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - Nearly five years after a
13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and stabbed
to death, authorities on Wednesday charged a
former neighbor with the killing.
Miguel Figueroa, 29, formerly of Camden, was
charged with the August 1995 killing of Shaline
Seguinot, said Camden County Prosecutor Lee A.
Solomon. He faces an arraignment Thursday.
Figueroa was returned to New Jersey earlier this
month from Tampa Bay, Fla., to face an unrelated
sexual assault charge in another case. But he had
long been a suspect in Shaline's death.
The victim's mother, Lourdes Vasquez, said she
was relieved that the ordeal of waiting for an arrest
is finally over. Figueroa had been wanted for
questioning in the case for two years.
"I'm kind of in shock," a teary-eyed Vasquez said.
"I can go home at night now and say finally they
caught someone. There's a face now to the whole
mystery."
Shaline disappeared Aug. 4, 1995 while riding a
bicycle outside her grandparent's house in North
Camden. Her nude body was found three days later
in a weed-choked field near the Pyne Point
Elementary School, where she was an honor
student. She had been sexually assaulted and
stabbed.
A popular teen-ager, Shaline was a cheerleader and
an avid reader. She dreamed of becoming a child
psychiatrist and would often go to the library to
read
medical books.
Figueroa knew the victim's family and even helped
search for her, Vasquez said.
"Why would he do this to an innocent little girl?
Why?" said Shaline's father, Noel Seguinot. "She
was a wonderful little girl, a wonderful future. Why
would he do something like this?"
Solomon said a decision will be made later on
whether Figueroa will face the death penalty if
convicted on the murder charge.
"Personally, I believe an eye for an eye," said Noel
Seguinot, of Woodbury. "It's important to send a
clear message out ... to everyone else that commits
this sort of a crime. It was senseless. She never
hurt
anybody."
Solomon credited exhaustive work by investigators
in cracking the case, but would not disclose the
breakthrough that led to the arrest. An $8,000
reward will be given to an anonymous tipster who
helped police, he said.
"We've had some pretty rough cases in this office -
none rougher than this," Solomon said at a news
conference. "The only thing that keeps you awake
at night are cases like this. They're the ones you
think about."
The murder struck a nerve in Camden, a city where
a record 60 people were killed that year; she was
among its youngest victims. Since then, relatives and
friends crisscrossed the community, putting up
yellow ribbons to encourage anyone with
information about the killing to come forward.
"We worked it so hard," said Camden Police
Detective Frank Ruiz, who choked back tears when
the arrest was announced. "It's just good to have the
person we've been searching for a long time."
Ruiz has been assigned to the case since the
beginning, along with his younger brother, Miguel,
also a Camden detective. The brothers grew up in
North Camden and know the victim's parents and
Figueroa.
"To find out that it was someone you knew that hurt
somebody that you also knew, it was hard," said
Frank Ruiz.
Law enforcement officials say DNA evidence in the
case linked Figueroa to the killing. Authorities made
three trips to Puerto Rico last year looking for
Figueroa before learning he had recently moved to
the Tampa area.
"It doesn't close anything as far as my life is
concerned," said Vasquez. "All it does is close a
chapter to a book."
AP-ES-02-23-00 2122EST<
http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpmt27.htm