Diario Horizonte
Publicado el 06-21-2012

DA VANCE ANNOUNCES ARRAIGNMENT OF RODNEY ALCALA FOR TWO PREVIOUSLY UNSOLVED HOMICIDES FROM THE 1970s

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the arraignment of RODNEY ALCALA, 68, a/k/a JOHN BERGER, in Manhattan Supreme Court on murder charges in the deaths of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover. Decades after these crimes occurred, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Forensic Sciences/Cold Case Unit presented these cases to the Grand Jury, which indicted ALCALA on January 26, 2011, for the murders of Ms. Crilley and Ms. Hover.

Ms. Crilley, a 23-year-old TWA flight attendant, was found raped and strangled inside her Upper East Side apartment in June of 1971. Ms. Hover, who was also 23 and living in Manhattan, was found murdered in Westchester County in 1977.

ALCALA had been incarcerated in California. ALCALA was transported to New York this morning by United States Marshals and turned over to the custody of the New York City Police Department.

District Attorney Vance created the Forensic Science/Cold Case Unit in 2010, which is reviewing more than 3,000 unsolved homicides dating back to the 1970s. Assistant District Attorneys Martha Bashford, Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit, Melissa Mourges, Chief of the Forensic Science/Cold Case Unit, and Alex Spiro are handling the prosecution of this case.

District Attorney Vance thanked the New York City Police Department, particularly the detectives in the Cold Case Squad, including Detectives Wendell Stradford, Robert Dewhurst, and (ret.) Stefano Braccini. District Attorney Vance also thanked Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore for her office’s work in this investigation. District Attorney Vance also thanked the Unites States Marshals Service for their assistance in transporting the defendant.