NY - Thomas Rath, 33, kidnapped from homeless encampment the ‘Jungle’ & killed, 10 people arrested, Ithaca, 20 May 2023

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Two New York State Police vehicles parked on Benjamin Hill Road during a June search for Thomas Rath in Newfield.

ITHACA, N.Y.—Ten people have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of Thomas Rath, 33, of Ithaca. The arrests were announced during a Monday morning press conference at the New York State Police barracks in Freeville.

Rath has been missing from the homeless encampment known as “the Jungle” since May 20, 2023—100 days before Monday’s announcement. Police announced their investigation into Rath’s disappearance had evolved into a kidnapping and homicide investigation on June 28.

Two people, Angelo Baez, 48 years old of Ithaca, and Jonathan Glennon, 31 years old of Ithaca, have been charged with second-degree murder with intent. Baez has also been charged with first-degree kidnapping, and is incarcerated in Tioga County while Glennon is incarcerated in Maine, according to police.

Another eight people were arrested and charged with first-degree kidnapping in connection to the crime (ages and residences in parentheses): Colleen Dillon (31 of Newfield), Robert Hines (52 of Candor), Zayne Burlingame (30 of Ithaca), Brelynn Vorrasi (27 of Lodi), Mark Beatty (35 of Ithaca), Jack Benjamin Jr. (39 of Ithaca), Neraida Sobrado-Torres (43 of Ithaca) and Justin Knapp (36 of Ithaca). All the defendants are local.

“This was not what we would call a random act, this is someone [Rath] was familiar with,” said Ithaca Police Department Acting Chief Ted Schwartz.

The search for Rath took police around the Jungle, the wider Newfield area and beyond, before they discovered his remains in a shallow grave on Aug. 3 off a road near the Tioga County-Tompkins County line, according to Capt. Lucas Anthony of the New York State Police. According to police, Rath was killed within 24 hours of being abducted.

Police did not disclose a motive or cause of death. Anthony did relay a general timeline for the development of the case, starting with a call to the Ithaca Police Department on May 20 asking for a welfare check on Rath, the day he was abducted from his encampment in the Jungle.
 

December 13, 2024

OWEGO (WBNG) -- Another person has been found guilty in the murder and kidnapping of Thomas Rath, of Ithaca.

According to court documents, Angelo Baez, was found guilty of murder in the first and second degree as well as kidnapping in Tioga County Court on Dec. 12.

Baez, who was 48-years-old when he was arrested for the crime, is the second person to be found guilty in the case. Joseph M. Howell, 38, of Newfield, NY, was found guilty of murder and kidnapping in October.

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13 people have been arrested in the investigation.
 
Joseph Howell was sentenced Friday to at least 31 years in prison by a Tioga County judge. Howell was the first prosecuted in the 2023 death of Thomas Rath, who was abducted from the ‘jungle’ in Ithaca and whose body was later found in Candor.
 
Last August, in a separate case, Howell, who is from Newfield, was found guilty of breaking into a home in Chemung County while armed with a shotgun. He not only stole from the homeowner but kidnapped him as well. The Newfield man faces eight to 25 years in prison in that case when sentenced
 

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