MD: Man Arrested for Manhole Murder
Man Arrested for Manhole Murder
Reported by: Brian Kuebler
Last Update: 10/05 4:20 pm
Police say illegal immigrant Victor Cruz is the man that strangled and murdered Elda Vasquez, then stuffed her body head first into a manhole in Northeast Baltimore.
"Two of our partners outside our jurisdiction, Howard County and the INS were able to put pieces of the puzzle together," said Baltimore City Detective Donny Moses.
The puzzle is as complicated as it is gruesome.
It was a homicide detective in Howard County who made the connection by recognizing a house in the photo published in the newspaper. He had served a warrant there to Victor Cruz, a suspect in the missing persons case of Elda Vasquez back in January 2008.
The detective called Baltimore City and the two departments worked together bringing them back to Cruz who was arrested at his home in Columbia and became the prime suspect in the murder of Vasquez.
"We did get a confession out of him. The two did have prior domestic issues. He admitted to choking our victim to death and there again, we charged him with first degree murder," said Moses.
Vasquez originally disappeared in January of 2008 from Howard County.
Police say she has no family in the area but worked two jobs. At the time her manager was concerned when she didn't show up for work, but this weekend they would find out she was murdered.
Police can't say if her body was beneath the Northeast Baltimore street for the whole year and a half but say as decomposed as her body was, it is possible.
From missing to murder; an open case police feel is now shut.
"We feel relatively sure that as far as the victim's family and as far as our goals of getting a conviction...we feel good," said Moses.
According to court records, Vasquez did press domestic violence charges against Cruz in 2007. He will go before a judge on new charges of assault and murder next month.
www.abc2news.com
