NY - Catherine Woods, 21, stabbed to death in her NYC apartment, 27 Nov 2005

[Jeana (DP)]

He got an attorney, and that would be my guess as to why he isn't talking also.

Discussion on Strip clubs thread started in Jury room.

They said on the news this morning that there is video of him outside the apartment during the time the murdered occurred and they are looking for the guy who called her 7 times that night before the murder.

 

[KatherineQ]

They said on the news this morning that there is video of him outside the apartment during the time the murdered occurred and they are looking for the guy who called her 7 times that night before the murder.

Jeana - up the board, I linked an article that stated it was Cortez who called her 7 times. Was that wrong?

 

[shadowangel]

As the primary advocate for Sharon Marshall, can I just inject one thing here? This young lady didn't die because she danced with her clothes off, she died because some maniac slashed her throat. It makes no difference what she did, this is another young life cut short for no reason at all. :angel:

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Jeana - up the board, I linked an article that stated it was Cortez who called her 7 times. Was that wrong?

I hate all these names!! I'm sorry. The guy who was there with her and left to move his car is not guilty because they had video of him being outside. Sorry - didn't mean to confuse!!!

 

[joanofarc]

Okay...so they have video of Haughn leaving to go get his car to take Catherine to work (crime committed with no forced entry into a secured building)....reports say Cortez is the one who phoned 7 times....Cortez says he is 23 blocks away at his house when he tries to phone her....reports/cops say he may have been closer to her apt when the calls were made. (Cortez dad says he was having trouble with his cell phone on Thanksgiving.....).

So if Catherine was freaked out over Cortez and not answering his cell phone calls meanwhile Cortez is nearby watching, sees David leave and then when someone else leaves the building he steps inside and makes his way to her apartment & kills her....but yet has no scratches on him either.....:waitasec: .

Another scenario that has Cortez innocent is he is trying to call her on a cell phone that isn't working properly...it rings...she answers....but cannot hear him or he can hear her and she not him.....something to that effect but you would think you would give up this effort after about 3 or 4 times....not seven....and he would be claiming all over the place that his cell phone was giving him trouble....also...if you are at home like you claim...why wouldn't you use your land line instead of a cell phone....cell calls cost extra to use when you could be using your cheaper home phone......

So an obsessed lover/man/boyfriend phones....she has caller ID...knows who it is...Catherine lets the phone ring until the answering machine kicks in....caller hangs up....frustrated she doesn't answer when he knows shes home the caller repeats this process again and again.....7 times in a row....all the while getting angrier and angrier with her as this process is going on....crazed, obsessed, controlling men engage in this type of behavior as it is part of the abuse cycle...Cortez, as reported, is said to have "thrown" Catherine against a wall at one time.....another classic sign of an abuser.....IMO

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Okay...so they have video of Haughn leaving to go get his car to take Catherine to work (crime committed with no forced entry into a secured building)....reports say Cortez is the one who phoned 7 times....Cortez says he is 23 blocks away at his house when he tries to phone her....reports/cops say he may have been closer to her apt when the calls were made. (Cortez dad says he was having trouble with his cell phone on Thanksgiving.....).

So if Catherine was freaked out over Cortez and not answering his cell phone calls meanwhile Cortez is nearby watching, sees David leave and then when someone else leaves the building he steps inside and makes his way to her apartment & kills her....but yet has no scratches on him either.....:waitasec: .

Another scenario that has Cortez innocent is he is trying to call her on a cell phone that isn't working properly...it rings...she answers....but cannot hear him or he can hear her and she not him.....something to that effect but you would think you would give up this effort after about 3 or 4 times....not seven....and he would be claiming all over the place that his cell phone was giving him trouble....also...if you are at home like you claim...why wouldn't you use your land line instead of a cell phone....cell calls cost extra to use when you could be using your cheaper home phone......

So an obsessed lover/man/boyfriend phones....she has caller ID...knows who it is...Catherine lets the phone ring until the answering machine kicks in....caller hangs up....frustrated she doesn't answer when he knows shes home the caller repeats this process again and again.....7 times in a row....all the while getting angrier and angrier with her as this process is going on....crazed, obsessed, controlling men engage in this type of behavior as it is part of the abuse cycle...Cortez, as reported, is said to have "thrown" Catherine against a wall at one time.....another classic sign of an abuser.....IMO

good points!

Does Cortez have a home phone?
Maybe that's why he used his cell phone to call.
Some people don't have home phones any more. Especially in NY where everything is too expensive.

Sometimes calls are dropped, so I can see where you could call 3 or 4 times like you mentioned. Maybe he called her and she kept hanging up on him?

 

[scandi]

Your comment Joan of Arc is quite close to what I heard on Fox about an hour ago:

"Okay...so they have video of Haughn leaving to go get his car to take Catherine to work (crime committed with no forced entry into a secured building)....reports say Cortez is the one who phoned 7 times....Cortez says he is 23 blocks away at his house when he tries to phone her....reports/cops say he may have been closer to her apt when the calls were made. (Cortez dad says he was having trouble with his cell phone on Thanksgiving.....)."

The differences are that they said it was Cortez they saw on the video, waiting outside close to her apt making phone calls. They said Haughn has opened himself up to police and said they can have any info from him that they want. Also Cortez has lawyered up so they are getting nothing from him.

And then she said the general concensus of thought is that he waited until he saw Houghn leave and then ran up to her apt and killed her. It would all depend on the angle the camera showed as to whether or not they saw Haughn leave and Cortez go into the building. If they did see this they are not letting on to that fact right now.

The NY cop this reporter interviewed said Haughn is still being looked at because at this point in the investiugation it would be bad judgement to focus only on one person. But when he started to talk about Cortez his voice got louder, and you could tell this is where the emphasis is being given in the case.

I suppose that now they have to get the goods on Cortez to prove he went into that apt and murdered her.

Scandi

 

[joanofarc]

Pictures at this link....Haughn is free to leave New York...say cops....so I guess they have ruled him out....

Scandi this article says looking for videotapes...so you may be right...if this is true then Cortez is in a whole lota doo...doo....IMO

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4192186&nav=LUESMuat

Police questioned Haughn for 29 hours following the murder, but have apparently now told him he is free to leave New York City.

Cortez and Woods met at a New York gym and apparently dated for awhile.

Cortez was once the lead singer in a New York band called "Stillwater." He has hired an attorney and is no longer cooperating with police.

But investigators are looking for surveillance tapes in buildings around his East Harlem apartment. They think he is lying about where he was at the time of the murder.

 

[scandi]

Hi Joan,

It does look bleak for Cortez, doesn't it? I guess from the live report this morning they have one shot from a video camera that shows Cortez outside making calls. I don't think it shows the entrance to her apt. Just think, if they found a shot that did show it and they saw Haughn leave and Cortez go into the bldg, WOW!

Let's keep our fingers crossed, OK


Scandi

 

[SewingDeb]

Published reports say surveillance video from a camera posted on a building down the block from the murder scene shows 25-year-old Paul Cortez, and it shows him at 6:30 Sunday night. Woods was murdered in apartment sometime between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

A police source says it was from that spot that Cortez made seven phone calls in quick succession to Woods. They were calls she didn't answer.

Cortez told police he made the calls from his own apartment 23 blocks away. Apparently the surveillance shows he's lying.

Cortez is a yoga trainer at a New York gym and had apparently dated Woods.

Reports say police also suspect Cortez because he would have known Woods' and Haughn's routine and that Haughn would leave the apartment around 6:30 p.m. to go get his car to take Woods to work.

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4193857

 

[mysteriew]

Cortez does look good for this.

 

[mysteriew]

The Daily News got a glimpse of the apartment where the 21-year-old Ohio woman lived and died as police let her longtime boyfriend return to their hometown of Columbus for Woods' memorial service.

David Haughn, 23, was expected to join other mourners at the Linworth United Methodist Church today where the Ohio State University marching band, which Woods' grieving dad directs, was to play the funeral march.

There were few visible signs in Apartment 2D of the building on E. 86th St. that this was where Woods' dreams of becoming a Broadway dancer were snuffed out forever.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/370884p-315485c.html

Police have video proof that an estranged lover of slain stripper Catherine Woods was standing just outside her Upper East Side building around the time the 21-year-old brunette was brutally murdered, The Post has learned.
The surveillance video — obtained from a camera posted on a building down the block — shows Paul Cortez, 25, on Sunday night outside 355 E. 86th St., where Woods was found nearly decapitated inside her bedroom, sources said.

That video and evidence that Cortez made cellphone calls to the Ohio native from right outside her apartment make him the No. 1 suspect in her slaying.

Sources said the killing would have taken about five minutes and that the murderer would have been prepared to hide any blood that splashed on him by bringing something to wear over his clothes or a change of clothes.

That makes it likely that the murder was premeditated instead of the crime of passion it initially appeared to be.

Cortez, according to a person who knows him, had called friends on Sunday afternoon to tell them he was performing with his band, Monolith, that night at a club called Rare in Manhattan's Meat Packing District.

But a manager at Rare yesterday said that the club was closed Sunday night, as it usually is.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/58838.htm

 

[mysteriew]

But investigators are looking for surveillance tapes in buildings around his East Harlem apartment. They think he is lying about where he was at the time of the murder.

But the New York police commissioner suggests that it will be evidence anyway -- not a confession -- that solves the murder of Catherine Woods.

"There's is a fair amount of forensic evidence that is being analyzed now that was taken from the scene. There was obviously a lot of blood from the scene. So all of that is being examined now,” Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Commissioner Kelly further said that the investigation is moving forward aggressively. But he would not make any indications of how soon an arrest may come.
http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=4192186&nav=LQlC

 

[concernedperson]

Cortez is looking good for this. Pretty damning stuff.

 

[scandi]

I loved that statement - the investigation is moving forward aggresively! Hoiw stupid could this guy be - standing out on the sidewald with the phone constantly on his ear and then if he did, run up her stairs and murder her quickly, never thinking that there might be cameras in the area to show the world exactly what he did!

I think they also want a shot of what he looked like walking out of that bldg. If he had a package under his arm containing clothes or a rainslicker to dispose of. See if he had the same clothes on when he came out as before he went in.

Actually, wouldn't you think he would leave the building and head out exactly the same way as he entered the scene before he went up to the appt? That means they very well could have a shot of him after he killed her if he passed the spot he was standing when they got him on camera before~! It's for sure they have a lot more on this guy than we posters know about.

Scandi

 

[mysteriew]

One of exotic dancer Catherine Woods' two boyfriends was in Ohio for her funeral yesterday - and it wasn't yoga instructor Paul Cortez.
The long-haired Lothario who wooed Woods with some slick dance moves of his own at a local gym was ordered by cops to sit tight in East Harlem, where he lives, police sources said.

"Interest has shifted to Cortez because his statements just aren't holding up," a police source said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/371167p-315756c.html


As slain stripper Catherine Woods was lovingly remembered at a memorial service yesterday in her Ohio hometown, the top suspect in her brutal murder proclaimed his innocence.

The dancer's estranged former lover, Paul Cortez, was advised by his lawyer not to speak to the media, but asked his close friend Alex Rude to pass on his comments to The Post.

"I never laid a hand on her at all," Cortez said through Rude.

"He loved Catherine and he is very broken up about her death," the friend added.

Woods was murdered in the bedroom of her Upper East Side apartment on Sunday night in a frenzied stabbing attack. Her larynx and jugular vein were completely severed and her carotid artery partially severed.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/58902.htm

 

[mysteriew]

She was the love of his life, but aspiring rapper David Haughn stayed away from murdered ex-girlfriend Catherine Woods' funeral in Ohio.
Although he traveled from New York to Columbus, Haughn reportedly was a no-show at the Friday service out of respect for the dancer's grieving family.

He feared his presence might distract from heartfelt tributes to Woods, 21, who was found with a slit throat last week in the Upper East Side apartment they shared.

Scrutiny has since shifted to her gym-trainer boyfriend, Paul Cortez, 25, who police believe was near her apartment and repeatedly called her shortly before she was killed. Cortez shuffled out of his apartment yesterday and refused to talk about the case.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/371512p-316081c.html

Paul Cortez — the No. 1 suspect in the slaying of stripper Catherine Woods — told an Indian guru he was concerned about the "bad energy" surrounding his estranged lover and that he wanted to help her out of her "negative situation."

He said it in front of a roomful of people on a spiritual retreat just weeks before the 21-year-old beauty was found nearly decapitated in her Upper East Side apartment on Nov. 27.

During a group discussion, Cortez said he was "having problems" with Woods, said Curt DeGroat, his friend who also attended the retreat.

"Paul said he was in love with Catherine but she was involved in a 'negative situation' and had 'bad energy' around her," he said.

Woods met Cortez last year at a gym where he worked as a yoga instructor.

When the guru told Cortez to bring Woods to a yoga center for "healing," Cortez replied that she's "not into it," DeGroat said.

But a note on her kitchen calendar reportedly shows she had an appointment the same day she was murdered at a "10:45 a.m. service, 324 Lafayette St., 7th Fl., Yoga Center."

That's the address of the Creative Light Church, where yoga classes are held Sundays at 10:45 a.m.

Creative Light Church is a California-based sect that emphasizes positive thinking for health and success.

Staffers at the church told The Post they do not know Woods or Cortez.

Cortez, who was raised by his mother in The Bronx, attended Poly Prep County Day School, where he had "so many extracurricular activities that other kids teased him," said classmate Cinque McKetty.

Last year, Cortez and pal Alex Rude co-founded a band called Monolith, in which Cortez sings lead vocals.

"Paul is able to produce both blistering highs and hypnotic, entrancing lows," the group's Web site says. "His onstage presence can be described as nothing less than raw delirium."
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/58977.htm

 

[mysteriew]

The Ohio mom of slain exotic dancer Catherine Woods broke her silence yesterday to say she's still too emotionally shattered to talk with New York's Finest about their investigation.
"I'm holding on to the little bit of blissful ignorance I can right now. We're going a day at a time," Donna Woods, 51, told the Daily News from her Columbus home.

The devastated mother of three gave a second reason for "deliberately" holding back inquiries: She wants investigators tofocus all their energy on catching the fiend who nearly decapitated her 21-year-old daughter on the upper East Side on Nov. 27. "I want the police to do their job and not have to worry about me making things difficult," said Woods, whose husband heads the Ohio State University marching band. "I don't want them to have to worry about me."

Meanwhile, new details emerged about how the classically trained dancer with dreams of making it big on Broadway spent her final day.

Hours before an assailant slit her throat in the E. 86th St. apartment she shared with hometown boyfriend David Haughn, Woods ate breakfast with a female friend and attended a two-hour service at the Creative Light Church of Religious Science in the East Village. "We came here. We ate breakfast. It was a really good day," said the pretty blond friend, who didn't want her name used. "We left church together. ... She said she was going home and that we had had a great day."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/371703p-316234c.html

 

[mysteriew]

The Ohio-born stripper savagely slashed to death in her Upper East Side apartment last week was looking for spiritual answers when she sat in on an East Village meditation and prayer group on the day she died.
Catherine Woods, 21, and a friend attended the two-hour meditation session and service at the Creative Light Church of Religious Science on Lafayette Street, just hours before she was found with her throat slit.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/58280.htm

 

[mysteriew]

Detectives probing the brutal slaying of stripper Catherine Woods were yesterday trying to pinpoint how their prime suspect — her estranged yoga-teacher boyfriend — may have traveled from his East Harlem apartment to her Upper East Side pad on the day of the murder.
NYPD detectives yesterday questioned workers at a car service across the street from the apartment of 25-year-old Paul Cortez, who had dated Woods over the past year.

"We're doing everything we can. We checked everything, even the buses," said a law enforcement source.

An employee of New Easy Way Radio Dispatcher said cops showed her a picture of Cortez, asking if she recognized the personal trainer and rock musician.

They told her he was a suspect in the killing of Woods, 21, who was stabbed and nearly decapitated in her East 86th Street apartment Nov. 27.

Law enforcement sources have identified Cortez as the prime suspect in the case.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/59033.htm