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

[Masterj]

This literally happened right down the street from me. How scary.

 

[lisafremont]

I live five blocks away! I know that block well. He worked at Equinox on 85th, east of Third.

 

[mysteriew]

The prime suspect in the brutal murder of stripper Catherine Woods phoned her obsessively when they were dating — demanding to know the beautiful brunette's whereabouts and what she was doing, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.

Sources say personal trainer Paul Cortez, 25, also repeatedly checked up on other women he dated — often dozens of times a day.

The pattern of harassment, sources said, mirrors Cortez's actions right before the Nov. 27 killing, when he called his estranged girlfriend Woods, an exotic dancer, from his cellphone seven times in quick succession, sources said.

"Where are you, why are you there, why are you going there, where are you going?" said one source, quoting the kinds of questions Cortez, an aspiring actor and rock singer, would demand of his girlfriends.

A number of women told detectives they were afraid the East Harlem resident would react violently when they split with him, saying he had a problem with rejection.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/59138.htm

 

[joanofarc]

About Catherine.....The Pride of Columbus

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/nyregion/thecity/11feat.html

 

[Jeana (DP)]

WWW.BUGMENOT.COM

if you don't want to register to read the article in the above post.

 

[mysteriew]

bloody fingerprint found near the body of murdered stripper Catherine Woods has been matched to her former boyfriend Paul Cortez, the prime suspect in the savage Upper East Side slaying, The Post has learned.
The link was made after Cortez, 25, was busted last night on a sexual-assault charge when a woman he dated told cops he had forcibly sodomized her, police sources said.

The arrest opened the door for detectives to obtain Cortez's fingerprints, which were not previously on file, and compare them to one in Woods' East 86th Street apartment, where she was repeatedly stabbed and nearly decapitated last month.

Cops plan to seek a search warrant today in order to comb his apartment for more evidence, sources said.

Cortez was arrested after the woman, who after hearing about the murder, came forward last week and told investigators they had gone out on a date last New Year's Eve that went horribly wrong, police sources said.

At one point, the woman said, the muscular personal trainer forced himself on her and, despite her protests, made her submit to anal sex, according to the sources.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/59141.htm

 

[Michelle Read]

bloody fingerprint found near the body of murdered stripper Catherine Woods has been matched to her former boyfriend Paul Cortez, the prime suspect in the savage Upper East Side slaying, The Post has learned.
The link was made after Cortez, 25, was busted last night on a sexual-assault charge when a woman he dated told cops he had forcibly sodomized her, police sources said.

The arrest opened the door for detectives to obtain Cortez's fingerprints, which were not previously on file, and compare them to one in Woods' East 86th Street apartment, where she was repeatedly stabbed and nearly decapitated last month.

Cops plan to seek a search warrant today in order to comb his apartment for more evidence, sources said.

Cortez was arrested after the woman, who after hearing about the murder, came forward last week and told investigators they had gone out on a date last New Year's Eve that went horribly wrong, police sources said.

At one point, the woman said, the muscular personal trainer forced himself on her and, despite her protests, made her submit to anal sex, according to the sources.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/59141.htm

I find it strange that Cortez was a suspect in Catherine's murder and yet police were unable to obtain his fingerprints? :waitasec:

It's too bad the other victim did not report the crime against her sooner! Thank God the police caught this break when they did! Now hopefully they will be able to obtain enough evidence to convict him of this crime, if he did it.

 

[mysteriew]

The former boyfriend of a slain topless dancer from Ohio was declared the prime suspect in her death, his arrest in the case delayed only because the transit strike Tuesday prevented a full grand jury from being seated.

Stolley explained that a grand jury quorum -- the minimum of 13 people legally needed to indict -- could not be seated because the bus and subway worker walkout had kept some jurors from being able to go to court. A full grand jury in New York seats 23 members.

The judge arraigned Cortez, a singer in the rock band Monolith, in connection with the January case, for which he was arrested Monday, on three counts of first-degree criminal sex act.

In that attack, Stolley said, Cortez grabbed the victim's throat, pressed his knee onto her chest and forced her to perform sex acts.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/5591658/detail.html

 

[Opie]

Another guy with issues about women. Get him!

 

[aussiegran]

I wonder how many he has raped that havent come forward. I bet there is more .I cant understand why she didnt come forward before and get him charged .I am trying not to judge her too much as I have never experienced rape and dont know how I would react .But she has to live with herself now knowing maybe she might have stopped him.

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

I wonder how many he has raped that havent come forward. I bet there is more .I cant understand why she didnt come forward before and get him charged .I am trying not to judge her too much as I have never experienced rape and dont know how I would react .But she has to live with herself now knowing maybe she might have stopped him.

I agree, but she may have been afraid of turning him in because of his violent behavior. :twocents:

 

[mysteriew]

Yoga instructor Paul Cortez - the long-haired Lothario who wooed murdered stripper Catherine Woods at a Manhattan gym - will be charged later this week with her grisly slaying, authorities said yesterday.

Police were expected to execute search warrants last night at Cortez's home and the Equinox gym where he worked. Customers at the E. 85th St. gym had few kind words for him.

"Every woman who has flirted with him describes him as overly obsessive," said Neam Obstfeld, 25, of Manhattan. "He had the ability to pull them in with this yoga personality ... but everyone knew they could see the anger in him."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/376417p-319850c.html

A fitness instructor yesterday was set to be slapped with murder charges for butchering his stripper ex-girlfriend — but grand jurors were thwarted by the transit strike.
Instead, he was arraigned only on charges he sodomized another woman, on New Year's Day.

Only a handful of people from three separate grand juries were able to beat the strike and make it to court yesterday, prompting prosecutors to hold their case close to the vest until they can get a complete panel.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/60006.htm

 

[Masterj]

I wonder how many he has raped that havent come forward. I bet there is more .I cant understand why she didnt come forward before and get him charged .I am trying not to judge her too much as I have never experienced rape and dont know how I would react .But she has to live with herself now knowing maybe she might have stopped him.

Aussiegran, if you ever experienced the intense emotional pain and shame that rape victims endure, than I am sure you would understand how difficult it probably was for her to remain silent. I can't even begin to explain how much my rape destroyed me emotionally. It is a deeply degrading and humiliating thing to experience and unfortunately the sad truth is that coming forward tends to make you relive that pain over and over again. It is hard enough being a rape survivor. She should be praised for her courage in coming forward now, not judged for what she didn't do then.

 

[Olivia77]

I just read the article in the Pride of Columbus. Catherine was really going for her dreams, taking voice and dance lessons, going to auditions. That article really gives you a look into who she was and how dedicated she was to pursing her dreams. How terrible it is that someone could do this to her...

 

[Michelle Read]

Does anyone know if this case has been presented to the Grand Jury yet and whether or not the suspect has been formally charged?

 

[mysteriew]

A long-haired fitness fanatic was indicted yesterday for the grisly murder of Catherine Woods, the Ohio stripper found nearly decapitated inside her upper East Side apartment.
Speaking in a soft voice, Paul Cortez pleaded not guilty to murdering Woods on Nov. 27 as she got ready to go to work at a topless club near Times Square.

Cortez, who met Woods at a gym where he worked as a fitness guru, told cops he was home - 20 blocks away from Woods' E. 86th St. apartment the night she was found dead.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/377377p-320594c.html

 

[CyberLaw]

If I recall correctly the stats, something like less then 5 percent of rapes are reported, and there is even a lesser conviction rate.

That is why men, rape and abuse women, they know that the chances of it being reported, let alone charged and convicted are slim.

You cannot obtain a person fingerprints without a court order or an arrest. Sometimes when a person has nothing to hide, they may choose to volunteer their fingerprints.

That is why it took another person to come forward, lay a complain,and charges were filed. Therefore, fingerprints could be obtained.

Otherwise, he was only a "suspect" in the murder of Catherine. As a suspect, you are not under arrest.

Ditto with DNA.

 

[JellyBean]

The Manhattan yoga instructor charged with slaying a young stripper tried to portray himself as his girlfriend's would-be savior - saying he called her father in Ohio and told him of her wild lifestyle, it was revealed yesterday.



Accused killer Paul Cortez told cops he made the call after a weeping Catherine Woods was drugged and almost raped at a West Side strip club.

Cortez claimed he tried to persuade her to stop stripping, but she refused, court records revealed.

"She mentioned that she needed to go back into stripping to support her lifestyle," Cortez told cops. "I told her that it was a bad idea, but she went anyway."

Cortez, 25, is charged with stabbing Woods, 21, to death in a jealous rage on Nov. 27. His bloody fingerprint was found at the scene, authorities have said.

He said he promised not to call Woods' family after the purported strip club incident, but he found her father's cell phone number and spilled the beans.

"I also told him about my relationship with her, how I loved her and that we were a couple," Cortez claimed to cops.

Jon Woods rushed to New York, according to Cortez, but left town after his daughter convinced him Cortez was lying. The father, who has said he knew nothing about his daughter's lifestyle, couldn't be reached for comment.

"Because I betrayed her trust, she stopped speaking to me," said Cortez, who had met Woods, an aspiring Broadway dancer, while working out.

The couple reconciled, but split for good after Woods caught Cortez trying to check whether other men called her, he told cops. "She couldn't trust me," he said. Minutes before she was killed, Cortez called Woods seven times while standing outside the E. 86th St. pad she shared with an Ohio beau, authorities have said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/381477p-323924c.html

 

[englishleigh]

He was clearly obsessed with her, it was a case of "if I can't have her, then no one will." But to slash her like that, to nearly decapitate her....there was some major rage in him.

This trial will be ugly, I am afraid....Cortez' defense attorneys will portray Catherine as a because of the way she made a living, and will try to pin it on someone from the strip club. I feel so horrible for her family. She came from a good family who loved her very much.

 

[nanandjim]

...
This trial will be ugly, I am afraid....Cortez' defense attorneys will portray Catherine as a because of the way she made a living, and will try to pin it on someone from the strip club. I feel so horrible for her family. She came from a good family who loved her very much.

In this case, I just don't think that it will work. Don't they have this guy's footprint or fingerprint in her blood? If so, this connects him to the scene as the murder was being committed.