NY NY- Marisha Cheong, 24, student @ LIU, pajama clad body bound w. green rope & washed up on Breezy Point beach, Queens, 19 Dec. 2012, *New initiative*

[dotr]

Apr 12, 2024
CBS New York's Alice Gainer looks into the 2012 disappearance and death of Marisha Cheong in this weekend's "Cold Case with Alice Gainer." You can watch the full story Saturday on CBS2 News at 11 p.m.

Family blames boyfriend as body of woman missing since December washes up in Queens with hands and legs bound

The body of Marisha Cheong, 24, who went missing in December washed up in a marshland near the Atlantic Ocean in Queens on Saturday morning.

www.dailymail.co.uk

January 3, 2013

Police: Missing Marisha Cheong Of Jamaica Did Not Disappear Voluntarily

Surveillance video and text messages are among the clues as police search for a young woman, who vanished under suspicious circumstances.

www.cbsnews.com

''NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Surveillance video and text messages are among the clues as police search for a young woman, who vanished under suspicious circumstances.

Under a Christmas tree in the Jamaica section of Queens, Jenny Persaud has gifts waiting for her friend who vanished on Dec. 19 – 24-year-old Marisha Cheong.''
''She lived in Jamaica with a longtime boyfriend, L.J. Balkaran, a delivery driver who freelances in the film industry.''

''Cheong's mother said her daughter called every day, but on the 20th she got a brief text message from her phone instead.
Persaud said she also got text messages that day.
"That whole day she texted me; she didn't call me," Persaud said, adding that was "very odd."
Family members said Cheong never left home without her iPad, but it was left behind when she vanished, along with both of her winter coats''

Thrown away 'like trash': Mom grieves after daughter found dead on NY beach

www.nbcnews.com

Feb. 19, 2013 By Lori Bordonaro
''The body of Marisha Cheong was found Saturday morning along Jamaica Bay at 149 Bayside Avenue in Roxbury, Queens, police said. She had been missing since December.''

Body Found on a Beach Was Tied Up (Published 2013)

The woman was identified as 24-year-old Marisha Cheong, a Queens resident and a student at Long Island University, who had disappeared in December.

www.nytimes.com

By Liz Robbins Feb. 18, 2013
''The body of a woman that washed up on a beach in Breezy Point, Queens, had been bound by green rope at the hands and the feet, the police said on Monday.''
''The woman was identified as 24-year-old Marisha Cheong, who had been missing for nearly two months before her body was found Saturday morning.

A student at Long Island University, Ms. Cheong, who grew up on Long Island in Valley Stream, had lived with her boyfriend, Latchman Balkaran, 26, in Jamaica, Queens. The police questioned him after her disappearance on Dec. 19 and again when her body was found, but have not labeled him a suspect or a person of interest. ''
'' He said that he last received a text message from her asking him to pick her up at a subway station in Forest Hills on Dec. 19, but that she did not appear.''

''The injuries observed in preliminary tests were hemorrhaging on the right side of the neck, a bone fracture in her neck, bruises on her hips and a bruise to her right thigh.''

 

[bitesizedcrime]

I've never heard of this case, thank you for sharing it. I look forward to seeing what the CBS special reveals.

 

[dotr]

Last texts reveal mother’s desperate pleas to murdered teen

These are the last heartbreaking text messages from a terrified Queens mom to her daughter begging her to come home the day the dark-haired coed vanished without a trace and whose trussed body was …

nypost.com

''But Ali insists it was not her daughter texting her back. She believes it was her alleged killer, boyfriend, Latchman Balkaran, an aspiring filmmaker.

“She texted me but it wasn’t her texts,” Ali insisted. “She texted, ‘Mom, I’m fine’ but she always called me ‘Mommy.’ I know in my heart it wasn’t her — somebody was using her phone.”

 

[dotr]

2013

Surveillance footage shows college student on day she vanished

JAMAICA, Queens (PIX11) – In surveillance footage released by the NYPD to PIX 11 News, 24-year old Marisha Cheong is led from a home on 145th Street in Jamaica, Queens on the day she disappeared …

pix11.com

''Detectives from the 103rd Squad in Queens told PIX 11 an unknown woman entered the house, owned by the family of Cheong’s boyfriend, about 11 am last December 19th. Thirteen minutes later, the female is seen leading Cheong out of the house by her left arm. When Cheong pulls back on the sidewalk, to close the gate, the woman tugs her back down the block.

Nearly two months after the surveillance footage captured this scene, on February 16, 2013, Cheong’s body washed up on the shore of Breezy Point, Queens. She was wearing colorful pajama pants and Uggs, the same outfit she was seen in the day she disappeared.''

''Detectives told PIX 11 Cheong’s last, cell phone communications indicate she was near the Addabo Bridge, between Howard Beach and Broad Channel. They think Cheong may have been dumped from there, possibly still alive, because her body later washed up in Breezy Point.''

 

[dotr]

Apr 13, 2024
It was a case that dominated local news headlines 11 years ago -- a young woman went missing just before Christmas, gone seemingly without a trace, until her body was found months later. Her family and friends thought justice would be swift, but they're still waiting for answers. In this "Cold Case with Alice Gainer," she asks who killed Marisha Cheong?

 

[bitesizedcrime]

I've been doing some digging, and something I find very interesting about this case is the timeline of the morning of December 19, 2012. I found one interview (after her body was found) with the boyfriend where he said that he left the house for work around 10:30am, that Marisha was in bed in her pajamas, and that she was gone when he came home. But later, both the boyfriend and police said that Marisha had been the one to leave the house around 10:30/10:40am because she and the boyfriend had gotten into an argument about their relationship. After her body was found, it was reported that Marisha was caught on camera entering the house around 11:15am and coming back out with the other person about 5 minutes later. When police eventually released the video footage of Marisha being led out of the house, the time was 11:22am.

So what I'm taking from this:
10:30am - (disputed?) Boyfriend leaves for work, Marisha in pjs
10:40am - Marisha leaves the house after argument (still in pjs?)
11:00am - Mystery woman enters the house?
11:15am - Marisha re-enters the house
11:22am - Marisha leaves the house again, this time with another person (woman?)

The 10:30-10:40 story is what trips me up. Why would the boyfriend say he left Marisha at home in her pajamas, something that contradicts all the other times he said she was the one who left that morning? Was he just misremembering two months later? It makes the most sense given the video evidence that Marisha left, came back, then left again.

Am I overthinking this???

(Edited to add missing timestamp)