Where are Daphne Abdella and Christopher Vasquez now?
other than that while standing law & Order franchise, The latest project from producer Dick Wolf Homicide: New York. The new Netflix documentary, which premiered March 20, looks at several murder cases from the past three decades from the perspective of the people who investigated them.
Episode 2, “The Central Park Slaying”, focuses on the 1997 murder of Michael McMorrow, whose body was found in a Central Park lake with multiple knife wounds and his stomach cut open. According to Barbara Butcher, a retired death investigator from the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office, this was an “exaggeration.”
Murder of Michael McMorrow
Daphne Abdellah and Christopher Vasquez, both 15, were arrested in connection with the murder of the real estate agent. In the documentary, Rob Mooney, a retired New York Police Department detective, said that the teens were drinking with McMorrow and a group of people in the park.
McMorrow “was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mooney said, sharing Abdella’s description of the evening: She and Vasquez had gone swimming, and McMorrow reportedly put his arm around Abdella to warm her up, Which Vasquez felt he was trying to do. Make “advance”.
She said Vasquez was the one who attacked McMorrow until he admitted evidence that confirmed she had kicked him, “leaving him helpless”, as Butcher said. Was.
Daphne Abdellah and Christopher Vasquez TODAY
Abdellah pleaded guilty to manslaughter as part of a plea bargain in which he did not have to testify against his friend. Vasquez was found not guilty of murder separately, but like Abdella was found guilty of manslaughter. An unnamed juror reported, “One of the biggest problems was that Daphne Abdellah was not available and there was nothing to guide us.” the new York Times in 1998. “We just felt that we couldn’t be sure what happened and we weren’t 100% positive that he committed murder.”
Both Abdella and Vasquez were released in 2004. McMorrow’s brother Charles said Homicide that his “brother’s life was worth more than six years in prison.” Investigators also expressed frustration with the case – particularly that they still do not know what led to McMorrow’s murder.
“I don’t think justice was done. I know, it’s the system, and it’s the law, and they were kids, and that’s what happens. But it doesn’t seem fair,” Butcher said.
Former Assistant District Attorney Richard Planxey said he was “not aware” of Vasquez re-offending, but according to the documentary, Abdellah went back to prison after violating his parole with an assault.
The last update about Abdella comes from New York Post And New York Daily News, The two reported in 2009 that she had filed a lawsuit over injuries sustained in an alleged car accident.
