Three Women Were Sexually Assaulted and Killed in Yonkers, New York
The totally nude body of Maria was discovered on February 5, 1989, in front of 78 Fernbrook Street in Yonkers, New York.
Between 1989 and 1996 three women were sexually assaulted, strangled, and killed in Yonkers, New York, by an unknown serial killer. On February 5, 1989, the nude body of 25-year-old Maria was found sexually displayed in an industrial area by the Hudson River on the west end of the city. On March 28, 1991, the nude body of 28-year-old Tawanda was found sexually displayed in a vacant lot in the same industrial area within 820 feet from where Maria had been found two years earlier. In both cases, lack of information resulted in the cases going cold.
On May 24, 1996, the nude body of 30-year-old Kimberly was found in a room at the Trade Winds Motel in Yonkers. Due to the similarities between the homicide of Kimberly and the two previous homicides of known prostitutes in the City of Yonkers, DNA comparisons were requested. The DNA samples all came from the same unknown subject. A task force was established to investigate the cases, but due to the lack of information and suspects the cases went cold in 1998.
She was totally nude, legs open, hands were bound behind her back, left over right hand, with her own black pantyhose. This was a classic signature-type binding.
In 2000 Detective John Geis of the Yonkers Cold Case Squad reopened a cold case investigation, which lasted 11 years. Detective Geis resubmitted original items that could now be tested with the new DNA technology (STR/PCR) and all the samples were resubmitted to CODIS.
Detective Geis organized and reviewed all of the cases and conducted interviews with all of the possible witnesses. During this time Detective Geis looked at over 100 suspects, whom he eventually eliminated through DNA or by unavailability due to prison time. An FBI profile was requested and received in July 2002. The unknown subject was described as a white male in his 40s. In 2007, this case was presented at the FBI National Academy and additional cases that were similar were reviewed for leads, but there was no DNA recovered in these other murders.
The totally nude body of Tawanda was discovered on March 28, 1991, in a vacant lot adjacent to a building at 1 Federal Street, Yonkers, New York.
It was suspected that all three women had been killed by the same offender. Each of the victims had been similarly bound and each was sexually presented at the crime scene. However, the description of the offender as provided by a witness in one of the cases did not match the FBI profile. These homicides were “fantasy-based” on the part of the offender, who most likely had a record and was familiar with all of the locations. The offender had selected his victims for the purposes of prostitution and brought them to another location where the offender could act out his sexual fantasies. In two of the cases, the offender brought his victims’ bodies to an outdoor public area where their bodies would be discovered.
He felt comfortable at these locations and knew that he could sexually pose them to satisfy a perverse sexual fantasy and yet avoid apprehension. The locations of these first two disposal sites were within 820 feet of one another. In each of the cases, the offender had bound his victims using their own undergarments, which was signature behavior. The third case had taken place at the Trade Winds Motel. The nude body of this victim had been similarly posed with her hands behind her back on the bed in the motel room.
The body of Kimberly was found face-up nude from the waist down with her t-shirt pulled up over her breasts in the Trade Winds Motel.
On November 9, 2009, Detective Geis received a DNA confirmation on a suspect named Francisco Acevedo. Acevedo had been arrested on a felony DWI charge and had voluntarily provided his DNA as a condition for the submission of a parole application. Initially, a CODIS match indicated Acevedo as a suspect. However additional testing was required, which indicated that Acevedo was positively matched to all of the Yonkers cases. He did not match the FBI profile at all. Acevedo was Hispanic as previously described by a witness who saw him with Kimberly at the motel on the day of the murder.
Her hands were bound behind her back, right over left wrist, with a telephone cord from the room. She had been strangled from the rear with her panties. This was a classic signature type binding, which matched the other two victims.
A subsequent investigation by Detective Geis revealed that Acevedo had an extensive criminal record and had been in and out of jail at least nine times since 1986. However, he was available and not in custody at the time of the murders. Detective Geis also learned that Acevedo had previously worked in the locations of the first two dumpsites and also frequented the motel where the third body was discovered. Detective Geis advised Acevedo that his fingerprints were found on a paper bag at the motel crime scene and that his DNA was on some cigarette butts. Geis was able to obtain an admission from Acevedo, during a prison interview, that he had been to the Trade Winds Motel once with some friends and had sex with a prostitute.
The victims, Maria Ramos, Tawanda Hodges, and Kimberly Moore.
Acevedo told the detective that he had sex but didn’t kill anyone at the motel where the third victim was found. Detective Geis learned that Acevedo had kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman named Deloris in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1986. This “living witness” who had survived an attack by Acevedo was able to provide details of her attack, in which she had bindings very similar to those in the murder cases. Acevedo’s fingerprints were recovered from a paper bag at the Trade Winds Motel where Kimberly had been killed. Most important biological evidence had been recovered from each of the victims and was matched to Acevedo’s DNA, which provided the probative link.
The most important evidence in this case was the suspect’s DNA, which was matched to each of the victims. The defense tried to suggest that the defendant’s DNA did not confirm direct association with the death of the victims. They actually preferred that Acevedo just happened to have sex with these three victims and that someone else came along and killed them.
The “Distinctive Signature Patterns” of the cases:
- All of the crime scenes were staged crime scenes.
- All of the victims were found bound nude or seminude at the crime scenes.
- All of the victims were sexually posed and presented face-up lying on their backs.
- All of the victim’s bodies appeared to have been carefully arranged for display.
- The offender sexually displayed the victims to be found.
- All of the victims were bound in an explicit manner with their hands secured behind their backs in a similar fashion.
- All of the victims were strangled (manually or by ligature).
- All of the victims were strangled from the rear.
- All of the victims were bound or strangled with items of their underwear or lingerie.
- Two of the victims were sexually assaulted and killed at an undisclosed location and then transported to a disposal site within 820 feet of one another.
- The offender felt comfortable at this location having worked there or being familiar with the location.
- Two of the victims, known prostitutes, were picked up from 183rd Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx.
On November 14, 2011, a Westchester County jury took less than 5 hours to find Francisco Acevedo guilty of murdering three women in south Yonkers between 1989 and 1996. On January 17, 2012, Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli sentenced Acevedo to 75 years. Zambelli stated, “Tese were monstrous crimes committed by a cruel and inhuman individual.”
Francisco Acevedo was found guilty of murdering three women in south Yonkers between 1989 and 1996.
