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Arrest In "Baby Hope" Made After 22 Years

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COUSIN ARRESTED IN "BABY HOPE" KILLING 22 YEARS AGO.
BABY FOUND IN A COOLER WITHOUT A NAME, 22 YEARS.
Source: CS Muncy for The New York Times
Conrado Juarez, 52, was arrested in the 1991 killing of Anjelica Castillo.
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
It was a cold case that had eluded investigators for more than two decades. A little girl with no name had been stuffed into a cooler and left beside a Manhattan highway. On Saturday, however, the mystery seemed to have been lifted with the arrest of a cousin of the girl, known as Baby Hope, the police said.
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John Minchillo/Associated Press
Conrado Juarez on Saturday during his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court.
John Minchillo/Associated Press
Jerry Giorgio, center, the lead detective in the case, appeared with Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly on Saturday as he announced the arrest of Conrado Juarez in the killing of the girl known as Baby Hope.
Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times
A flier about the Baby Hope case on display last week in the Crime Stoppers room at police headquarters.
And the girl’s name had finally been restored: Anjelica Castillo, who was born in Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens in 1987 and was 4 years old when she died.
The cousin, Conrado Juarez, 52, who lives on Richmond Plaza in the Bronx, was apprehended on Friday at the Greenwich Village restaurant where he worked, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. On Saturday morning, Mr. Kelly added, Mr. Juarez confessed to sexually abusing and murdering the girl and, with the help of one of his sisters, putting the body in a picnic cooler and leaving it near the Henry Hudson Parkway in 1991.
It was there, on July 23 of that year, that construction workers discovered the remains. Detectives named her Baby Hope as a symbol of their refusal to give up until they found her killer and gave her back her real name.
Police department investigators and officials from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office who had dedicated more than two decades to the case met news of the arrest with a mixture of relief and solemn satisfaction. Many continued their efforts even as year after year hundreds of leads turned up nothing.
“Over the years the optimism was always there, except the frustration would grow,” said Deputy Chief Joseph J. Reznick, who was detective commander of the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights, where Anjelica was found. “But, you know what, reflecting back on what we named this little girl, Baby Hope, I think that’s the most accurate name we could have come up with. And it worked.”
Mr. Kelly attributed the success to “public outreach, forensic investigation and old-fashioned pavement pounding.” Every year on the anniversary of Anjelica’s death, police officers would fan out across New York City, to post fliers, visit old addresses and talk to neighbors and relatives.
Officers often visited the Bronx grave where detectives from the 34th Precinct buried the girl. On a headstone engraved with Baby Hope, there was also a plea for help. “The identity of this little girl is still unknown,” the words on the stone read. “If you have any information, please call 1-800-577-TIPS.” 
The tip that reignited the investigation came over the summer. The police were handing out fliers, tacking up posters and sending a van equipped with loudspeakers through Washington Heights in an effort to generate leads in the case.
A woman came forward to share with the police the distant memory of a conversation she once had with another woman who had said her younger sister had been murdered. Detectives noted similarities to the Baby Hope case and tracked down the woman, who turned out to be a sister of Anjelica. That led the police to Anjelica’s mother.
They obtained an envelope that the mother had apparently licked to seal, enough to create a DNA profile, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. When it was compared to a DNA sample taken from the remains of Anjelica, there was a match.
From there, detectives from the Cold Case Squad built an extensive family tree leading them from Queens to the Bronx and to Mexico. They learned that Anjelica’s father was an immigrant from Mexico who had at one point moved to Queens. He had three daughters, including Anjelica. At some point, the family split, and Anjelica’s father took custody of her and a sister, while her mother was left with the remaining daughter.
At the time she was killed, Anjelica was living in a home in Astoria, Queens, with several other relatives, including the sister of Mr. Juarez, Balvina Juarez- Ramirez.
On the day Anjelica was killed, Mr. Juarez came to visit the home. He sexually assaulted her and then smothered her, Mr. Kelly said, citing Mr. Juarez’s confession.
After she was dead, Mr. Juarez summoned Ms. Ramirez from another room. In his confession, Mr. Juarez said that it was Ms. Ramirez who directed him to dispose of the body and brought him the cooler.
The brother and sister hailed a livery cab, and traveled with the body to Manhattan. There, in a wooded area near the Dyckman Street exit off the Henry Hudson Parkway, they left the cooler containing Anjelica’s body.
“Juarez returned to the Bronx and his sister to Queens, never to speak of the heinous act again until the N.Y.P.D. investigators through their relentless investigation caught up with Juarez,” Mr. Kelly said, adding that Ms. Ramirez had since died.
Mr. Juarez was arraigned late Saturday night and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty. No bail was set.
A law enforcement official, who requested anonymity because the inquiry was continuing, said investigators believed that Ms. Ramirez had been involved in the abuse of other children, both with and apart from Mr. Juarez.
The official added that the case would most likely not have been solved without the assistance of other relatives of Mr. Juarez. The reactivated case eventually led detectives to Mr. Juarez’s apartment. Mr. Kelly said that his daughter told them that her father “had been in Mexico for the last 12 years.”
“Detectives were able to interview Juarez’s wife, who resided at that same address,” Mr. Kelly said. “She informed them that in fact, he had gone to work at 7 a.m. Friday morning — at a job in Manhattan. Investigators met him near the restaurant where he is employed and convinced him to talk with them.”
On Saturday night, a manager at Trattoria Pesce Pasta on Bleecker Street confirmed that Mr. Juarez worked there, but would not say more. Mr. Juarez, a petite man with a thick dark mustache, wore a white button-down shirt and navy blue pants when he arrived at Manhattan Criminal Court.

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