GUILTY NY - Eridania Rodriguez, 46, murdered in Manhattan skyscraper, 7 Jul 2009

[SuziQ]

Weird case. Security cameras do not show her leaving the building.

Police are searching for clues in the mysterious disappearance of a mother in Lower Manhattan.
When she didn't get off the train and didn't walk through the front door, her family knew something was very wrong.
Eridania Rodriguez, 46, was last seen by her family on Tuesday afternoon.
Eridania Rodriguez, 46, punched in for work at 2 Rector Street around 5 p.m. She donned her blue uniform, chatted with other after-hours employees and was last seen on security cameras around 7 p.m., according to a lawyer for her family, Daniel Ferreira.

More at link:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6906441

 

[SuziQ]

Foul Play Is Suspected After Woman Disappears

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/nyregion/10missing.html

(snips)
A mop and a hair clip. That was all Eridania Rodriguez’s co-workers found when she failed to join them for a break from cleaning a Lower Manhattan building late Tuesday.

Ms. Rodriguez was last seen in a surveillance video between 7 and 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, said Daniel Ferreira, the family friend and a lawyer for the missing woman’s brother Victor Martinez. A law enforcement source said the video shows her in her uniform — a blue jumpsuit — pushing her cleaning cart into an elevator.
Also around 7:30 p.m., Ms. Rodriguez spoke to her daughter by telephone, said Mr. Ferreira, who had been informed of events by Mr. Martinez. About 9 p.m., co-workers went to look for Ms. Rodriguez when she failed to join them for dinner, Mr. Ferreira said. They searched the floors where she usually cleaned. When they could not find her, they called the police, he said.
Ms. Rodriguez’s clothes and purse were found in a changing room on the 10th floor, and her cart was found on the eighth floor, the police said.

Ms. Rodriguez also told relatives that she had been afraid of a former worker in the building who had been fired about a month ago but kept returning, Mr. Ferreira said.
A moving company was working on one of her floors on Tuesday night, he said. Mr. Browne confirmed that the city’s Department of Transportation was moving out of the building that night.

 

[SuziQ]

A moving co. employee would be able to get her past security cameras. Hide her in a piece of furniture or something.

 

[SuziQ]

Police are now questioning a person of interest in connection with the disappearance of a missing Washington Heights mother -- who vanished from her job in the financial district midday during her shift on the evening cleaning crew, PIX News has learned. Authorities are now treating the case as a homicide.

Eridania Rodriguez, 46, disappeared from her job at 2 Rector Street Tuesday night. She punched in for her shift, worked a few hours in the building and was last seen on surveillance cameras around 7 p.m., said a lawyer for her family, Daniel Ferreira.

Police have not released further details on the case and did not clarify on what caused them to believe she may have been murdered.

(more at link)
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-ny-missing-washington-heights-mother,0,1350335.story

 

[SuziQ]

More info on the deal with the creepy guy that worked in the building. The article states he is a co-worker, but I think he worked in the building for a different company. Sounds like she got him fired.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/eridania.rodriguez.manhattan.2.1078562.html

 

[Fairy1]

Oh dear. This does not sound good at all. I hope they are leaning on the POI. I'm thinking she is somewhere in that building still.

 

[LaLaw2000]

A moving company has to account for each piece of furniture and box they move. It is usually listed on an inventory sheet as well as having a numbered sticker on each piece. I almost never got all of the little orange stickers off of my furniture when I had a professional moving company move my things from a house I had sold. Of course anything is possible, tho.

She very well may still be in that building somewhere. What about incenerators in the building? When would they have been in use if they have them? I shudder to think what may have happened to this woman. I hope answers are found very soon for the families sake as well as for the woman herself.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Surely they checked the elevator shafts. One would assume she went missing from the 8th floor since that is where they found her cart.

It sounds like the guy that was fired is the most likely suspect. She would have to be either still in the building or carried out in furniture, trash carts, or stuffed into something else to avoid detection. If she was placed in a piece of furniture or file cabinet being moved without the knowledge of the movers, someone will find her fairly soon due to the decomposition.

 

[SuziQ]

SS, the decomp is what occured to me as well. Sad case.

 

[txsvicki]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,531162,00.html

Eridania vanished with very good surveillance equipment in the building. She had reported a male co worker who made her nervous.

 

[CarrieBean]

A Manhattan family was waiting by the phone Thursday for news of their missing mother who police fear may be the victim of foul play.

Cops questioned a man who had paid unwanted attention to Eridania Rodriguez, 46, but cleared him as a potential suspect, police said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_...unt_for_bldg_cleaner_mom.html#ixzz0KrAohmTf&C

 

[gaia227]

I just posted this in Crimes in the News but saw it here and deleted the other post.

Eridania lives in my neighborhood. She lives about 2 blocks from me along Fort Tryon Park off Broadway. The papers list her as living in Washington Heights but actually the neighborhood is known as Inwood which is a little north of The Heights. Her daughter has a sign outside their apt. building that reads "Please help find my mother. She did not deserve this.'

 

[gaia227]

I have a bad feeling the DOT worker is involved. What I don't understand is that if he was fired then how was he getting into the building? One article stated that he had returned to the bldg after he was fired. Ever since 9/11 almost all office bldgs require you to sign in and out if you are a visitor and call the office to get approval of your arrival. If you are an employee then most of us have ID cards we swipe. If he wore his DOT uniform it probably would not have been that hard for him to just walk right in and the security guard thought nothing of it. Especially in the evenings things are a little more relaxed as far as security.

I always thought it would be creepy to clean offices in these big empty buildings. The company that cleans our office always works in pairs.

 

[Jadenn]

This is a sad case, and also very weird. I wonder if they checked all of the duct work in the ceilings, throughout the building. I don't know how they could have done that so quickly unless they have some sort of detection system that shows where a blockage is in duct work.

I think either that, the elevator shafts, or someone sneaked her out.

Here's hoping that she is found safe very soon.

 

[Liz]

This isn't sounding good, but I'll keep hoping. Meanwhile I'll keep Eridania, and her loved ones in my prayers.

 

[Mendara]

So no one was seen leaving the building with a suspicious item? Was this old employee seen on video? Did they bring in search dogs?

 

[reportertype]

EW YORK (July 9) - A Manhattan skyscraper in one of the most security-conscious parts of the city has become the scene of an unlikely missing persons mystery. Police are trying to figure out what happened to a cleaning woman who vanished midway through her shift Tuesday evening at an office tower a few hundred feet from the World Trade Center reconstruction site.

http://news.aol.com/article/eridani...ticle/eridania-rodriguez-disappearance/564622

This is bizarre. NYPD thinks she was killed and her body dumped in the trash.

http://news.aol.com/article/woman-v...near-ground/565146?icid=sphere_newsaol_inpage

 

[SuziQ]

This was just posted in a thread started in the Crimes section. I'm asking the mods to combine. Thanks to the poster who found this article.

NYPD: Missing high-rise worker might be in trash

http://news.aol.com/article/woman-v...near-ground/565146?icid=sphere_newsaol_inpage

(snip)
Police suspect the woman was killed and dumped in the trash. They expanded their search Friday to a Pennsylvania landfill where the building's garbage is taken.

 

[dreamweaver]

In the landfill? Do they have designated spots in the landfill? Do the dump trucks have gps installed?

 

[Malini2001]

I would have thought they would have searched the trash when they sealed and searched the building the day after she disappeared. Seems like a mistake if they didn't.