Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Popular New York Street Astronomer Charged in 22-Year-Old Murder

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Popular New York Street Astronomer Charged in 22-Year-Old Murder · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous young girl. Mini
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Speaker 1: Soriano disappears later found dead thirteen years old. A beautiful
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Speaker 1: little girl, straight a's loved astronomy, looking at the stars
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Speaker 1: in the last hours, bombshell in a case at his lane,
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Speaker 1: dormant over twenty years. I mean see Grace. This is
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at
0:45
Speaker 1: Fox Nation and series X one eleven. Take a listen
0:49
Speaker 1: to our friends at crime online dot com our cup one.
0:52
Speaker 1: Miner Lee Soriano was known to friends and family as Many.
0:56
Speaker 1: At thirteen, Many was in the seventh grade and was
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Speaker 1: a straight A student who wrote poetry in her journal
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Speaker 1: about love and rainbows. She liked to read romance novels,
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Speaker 1: and she dreamed of one day becoming an astronaut. She
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Speaker 1: was a fixture in her neighborhood, riding her bike or
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Speaker 1: zooming by enroller skates. Her friends described her as being
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Speaker 1: mature for her age. Mini's ant Mariza Soriano said people
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Speaker 1: used to call Many the Cinderella of the building. Many
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Speaker 1: usually stayed close to home. She sold candy door to
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Speaker 1: door and was often seen sitting in the lobby of
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Speaker 1: her apartment building doing her homework. She helped out with
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Speaker 1: family chores, household responsibilities, like doing her family's laundry or
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Speaker 1: walking free blocks to a twenty four hour deli, sometimes
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Speaker 1: late at night, to buy groceries. Oh gosh, I'm having
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Speaker 1: red bells of alarm going off in my head. Immediately
1:42
Speaker 1: hanging out in the lobby. Who would have seen her there?
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Speaker 1: Mature for her age, quiet and hard working is what
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Speaker 1: they meant by that, Going to the twenty four hour
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Speaker 1: deli for groceries or whatever the family needed, sometimes late
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Speaker 1: at night, at age thirte going door to door selling candy.
2:05
Speaker 1: You know, all of that maybe normal, but in my world,
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Speaker 1: those are huge causes of concern. Maybe I'm wrong, or
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Speaker 1: maybe I'm not. Take a listen to our cut to
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Speaker 1: crime online. Thirteen year old Mini Soriano followed a daily
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Speaker 1: routine after school. Each day, she would take a city
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Speaker 1: bus home from intermediate school one thirty five in Bronxdale,
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Speaker 1: then wait outside her apartment for her younger sister, Nadia's
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Speaker 1: bus to arrive so she could walk the seven year
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Speaker 1: old upstairs to their apartment. Classmate and friend Kimberly Ortiz
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Speaker 1: said many was quote so bubbly, just as sweet person
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Speaker 1: in general, she always wanted to help, especially with poetry.
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Speaker 1: She was so natural at it. She and Many bonded
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Speaker 1: in an after school program. As they were leaving school
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Speaker 1: on February twenty fourth, Many wanted to go to the library,
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Speaker 1: but her tis needed to get home. Ortiz said that
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Speaker 1: Many made a comment about being upset about something, but
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Speaker 1: didn't divulge more, and Ortiz said she didn't press the issue.
3:01
Speaker 1: So when the bell rang at the end of the
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Speaker 1: school day, Many left wearing her red jacket, carrying her
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Speaker 1: blank book bag, and boarded a city bus. She was
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Speaker 1: supposed to meet her younger sister on the stairs in
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Speaker 1: front of their apartment building like every other school day,
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Speaker 1: but on this day, Many wasn't there. Later that evening,
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Speaker 1: her mother called nine one to report her daughter never
3:20
Speaker 1: came home from school that day. Can I tell you
3:23
Speaker 1: how many cases I have either investigated, prosecuted, or covered
3:29
Speaker 1: where a child goes missing in or around in relation
3:33
Speaker 1: to going to or coming home from school. And that's
3:37
Speaker 1: just on a regular school bus, much less a public
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Speaker 1: transportation bus. A school bus is full of other kids
3:45
Speaker 1: your age. A public transportation bus is full of adults,
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Speaker 1: including adult males just to you don't want around your
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Speaker 1: seventh grader all by herself. But before we are too harsh,
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Speaker 1: I was the last key kid myself. I walked home
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Speaker 1: from school, the shortest and the skinniest, and the whole
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Speaker 1: class would walk home alone from school over a mile.
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Speaker 1: So before you blame the parents, a lot of parents
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Speaker 1: have to work both of them during the day and
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Speaker 1: there's no other alternative, or no other alternative that they
4:23
Speaker 1: can afford. Again, I Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories.
4:27
Speaker 1: Saints for being with us. Take a listen now to
4:30
Speaker 1: our cut three. Sandra Bookman, ABC seven. Thirteen year old
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Speaker 1: minner Lee Soriano was last seen in class at I
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Speaker 1: one thirty five last Wednesday, February twenty fourth, but when
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Speaker 1: she didn't show up at home in Pellham Park by
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Speaker 1: seven thirty that evening, her family reported her missing to police.
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Speaker 1: Then Sunday night, a homeless person going through dumpsters behind
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Speaker 1: a video store just off Bartow Avenue discovered the body
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Speaker 1: of a young girl. Police recalled the next day. That
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Speaker 1: body was positively identified is that of Minnerlee Soriano. She'd
5:03
Speaker 1: apparently been strangled. While her family refused comment today, some
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Speaker 1: neighbors in their Pelleam Park building remember the last time
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Speaker 1: they saw Minnorales. I saw her a couple of days
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Speaker 1: later at the bus stop waiting for a bus. Then
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Speaker 1: I'd find out like a week later that she was missing.
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Speaker 1: Now this afternoon, a spokesman for the family of Mineralis
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Speaker 1: Soriano told us that the parents at this time are
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Speaker 1: simply too upset to talk about what has happened to
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Speaker 1: their daughter. So far, our police are saying very little
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Speaker 1: about when, where, and why this thirteen year old girl
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Speaker 1: was killed. An All star panel with me to make
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Speaker 1: sense of what we know right now. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor,
5:42
Speaker 1: author of Red Flags. You can find her at Wendy
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Speaker 1: Patrick PhD dot com. She's a host of Today with
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Speaker 1: Doctor Wendy on kcb Q San Diego. Doctor Angela Arnold
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Speaker 1: Round Psychiatrists, joining us from the Atlanta jurisdiction at Angela
5:56
Speaker 1: Arnold MD dot com. Professor Forensics Jackson will Stay University,
6:00
Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and star
6:03
Speaker 1: of an U hit series Bodybags with Joe Scott Morgan
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Speaker 1: on iHeart. A very special guest joining me today. You
6:12
Speaker 1: know him well. I consider him not just a colleague,
6:14
Speaker 1: but a friend. Feel the Tronto the father of murder Jogger,
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Speaker 1: the beautiful Korean of a Toronto who has made it
6:27
Speaker 1: his life's mission to seek justice. First to Tony DeStefano,
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Speaker 1: special writer Newsday and author of the Deadly Dawn Veto
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Speaker 1: GENEVICI find him at Tony DeStefano dot com. Tony is
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Speaker 1: great to have you with us, and I wish for
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Speaker 1: once we could talk when we don't have a murder
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Speaker 1: in the backdrop. Let's just start at the beginning. I
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Speaker 1: want to talk about Many Striano, just thirteen years old,
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Speaker 1: just a beautiful little First of all, tell me about Many. Well,
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Speaker 1: Many was, as you noted in your openings, was a
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Speaker 1: very precocious, active, young intermediate school girl in the Bronx.
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Speaker 1: And you know she was full of life. She had
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Speaker 1: interest in astronomy. You know what kid has interest in astronomy?
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Speaker 1: I get at that age, but not Many who she
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Speaker 1: was good for her. I daught her loves astronomy. Well
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Speaker 1: that's good. She turned fourteen and I loved astronomy at
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Speaker 1: that age. I love the stars, finding all of the pictures,
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Speaker 1: the constellations up in the sky. She has taken it
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Speaker 1: in Scouts. She loves it. Now, what do you made
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Speaker 1: by precocious? Well, precocious in the sense of her intellectual
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Speaker 1: interests in astronomy, going to school, and you know, intellectually,
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Speaker 1: I think curious. Okay, Now I find that interesting that
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Speaker 1: you would referred to her as precocious. The fact that
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Speaker 1: she makes all as, loves to study, wants to be
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Speaker 1: an astronaut, and loves astronomy. How is that precocious? I'm
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Speaker 1: just curious, I think, you know, in an intellectual way,
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Speaker 1: nut in any other way. Okay, got it? Got it?
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Speaker 1: So tell me about her living arrangement. She had her
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Speaker 1: little sister that she would wait on every single day
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Speaker 1: at the bus stop so the little sister wouldn't have
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Speaker 1: to walk upstairs by herself. Tell me where they live.
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Speaker 1: She lived with her mom, correct like she did in
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Speaker 1: the in the bronx Um. She was caring for her
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Speaker 1: younger sister. You know what I think she looks like.
8:39
Speaker 1: If any got any of you know this star, she's incredible.
8:43
Speaker 1: Unless you've been living under a rock or in a cave,
8:47
Speaker 1: or you haven't see spidy no way home, Zendia, no Zendias.
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Speaker 1: She's beautiful. I've loved her since the day one. Wasn't
9:00
Speaker 1: she in the Greatest Showman on Earth? Yeah, with Hugh Jackman. Yes,
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Speaker 1: and she's she's a teen girl. How old is she now? Oh,
9:09
Speaker 1: she's an adult now. She started as a teen girl.
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Speaker 1: And this little girl from the moment I saw Mini Soriano,
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Speaker 1: there's something about her that reminds me of Zendaya. And
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Speaker 1: I don't know why. It just maybe it's their eyes.
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Speaker 1: Do you see that comparison? I mean, just absolutely beautiful
9:38
Speaker 1: crime stories with Nancy Grace Tony to Stephano joining me,
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Speaker 1: Author and special writer with mus Day Tony. She lives
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Speaker 1: at home with mom. Very studious all a's you know
9:54
Speaker 1: what's interesting? Hold on Tony Bilba, Toronto. I remember when
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Speaker 1: you're daughter Karina Vatronto, and I just want to remind you.
10:06
Speaker 1: You know, I found a special star in the sky
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Speaker 1: that reminds me of Karina. That's funny. Yeah, I was
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Speaker 1: funny that I was looking at the star of this
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Speaker 1: very morning at about five am, when I was packing
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Speaker 1: the car for do you know, to take the children
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Speaker 1: to school. The star was out. I thought about you.
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Speaker 1: Do you remember at the very beginning everybody attacked Karina.
10:29
Speaker 1: Karina was murdered. She was attacked and murdered. But there
10:33
Speaker 1: were Why was she out running by herself? Why did
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Speaker 1: she why was she wearing a sports bra? Why was
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Speaker 1: she why did she have earbuds in? Did she know
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Speaker 1: this guy? Do you remember all that? Did she work
10:45
Speaker 1: at a bar? Did you remember all that? How Karina
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Speaker 1: was attacked in the media, Nancy like it was yesterday, Ruth.
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Speaker 1: They attacked her and then they attacked me. Yeah, that's right,
10:57
Speaker 1: because you found nare you You know it's hard for
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Speaker 1: a lot of people to get this, but you had
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Speaker 1: a feeling that something was wrong. Will you tell me?
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Speaker 1: You tell me what happened? Well, like I explained, I
11:11
Speaker 1: told you many times, but I'm going to tell your
11:13
Speaker 1: audience once more. I was. I picked her up at
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Speaker 1: the train station, came home. She went upstairs to eat,
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Speaker 1: and I sat on the count. She came down a
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Speaker 1: little while later and said, Daddy'm going to go for
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Speaker 1: a run. Do you want to come? And I says no, Range.
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Speaker 1: I called her Range. My back hurt, so I'm not
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Speaker 1: gonna make it. Tonight's where you're going? She says, I'm
11:36
Speaker 1: going on the trail. I says, I don't think it's
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Speaker 1: a good idea, and I left it Dad. She said,
11:40
Speaker 1: don't worry, daddy, I'll be okay. This is what she
11:42
Speaker 1: told me. And about twenty minutes later, I'm sitting there,
11:45
Speaker 1: I'm watching the news and I get this bad feeling.
11:47
Speaker 1: So I called her three times, but the third time
11:51
Speaker 1: I screamed, Now, my wife had just gotten home from
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Speaker 1: the hospital. She's upstairs and she said, what's the matter?
11:57
Speaker 1: Kmeda went out and she's not answering on her phone.
12:00
Speaker 1: I immediately went looking for her, couldn't find her. I
12:04
Speaker 1: called a friend of mine who was the deputy chief
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Speaker 1: on the Anyway p D. And you know, four hours later,
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Speaker 1: three hundred cops later, two helicopters, two bloodhounds later, I
12:16
Speaker 1: just stopped on the trail in the middle of the the
12:18
Speaker 1: night and something told me to walk in. It's like
12:23
Speaker 1: that you saw that one blight of grass. It was
12:28
Speaker 1: one one leaf on a weed that was bent out
12:33
Speaker 1: of place, but it was pep thirty at night, was
12:36
Speaker 1: pitch black, and something just made me stop right there
12:40
Speaker 1: and take a look, and thirty foot off the trail,
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Speaker 1: that's when my life ended. Yeah, you know what, Tolba Tronto,
12:48
Speaker 1: you're giving me deals all over my whole body again.
12:52
Speaker 1: And you're hearing Karna's father describing a feeling that made
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Speaker 1: him go for his daughter, and a feeling that led
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Speaker 1: him a certain way. After searching and searching and searching,
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Speaker 1: he found Karina Vetronto, his daughter's body. And let me
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Speaker 1: tell you, he suddenly became suspect number one. And at
13:19
Speaker 1: Karna's funeral, as I recall, you were asked to give
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Speaker 1: a DNA comparison, weren't you, Yes, I was right all races.
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Speaker 1: The media went berserk. So turning to Stephano, you poor thing,
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Speaker 1: I apologize because you when you said many it was precocious.
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Speaker 1: I totally that rubbed me the wrong way, and you
13:43
Speaker 1: were absolutely right. Now it's absolutely wrong because I'm so
13:46
Speaker 1: used to victims somehow being accused of wrongdoing that somehow
13:52
Speaker 1: it's their fault that I was just already you know,
13:56
Speaker 1: I was loaded for bear. But sadly I caught you
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Speaker 1: being good, So you're right. She was educationally and intellectually precocious,
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Speaker 1: far beyond her years. Is thirteen year old little girl.
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Speaker 1: So that day Tony des Stephano joining us from Newsday
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Speaker 1: that day that she's last seen. She gets on the
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Speaker 1: public bus and oh, do you remember the case we
14:19
Speaker 1: just did Jackie? Where up? I remember the little girl's
14:23
Speaker 1: last name was Jafriza Arianna Dafrez, who took a public
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Speaker 1: bus home from school, and video actually shows her being
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Speaker 1: led away by her killer from the bus. Public buses
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Speaker 1: with miners. It's a horrible combination. But a lot of
14:42
Speaker 1: parents don't have a choice. And I really hate Wendy
14:47
Speaker 1: Patrick when parents of latchkey kids are vilified because a
14:52
Speaker 1: lot of times there's not a darn thing they could
14:53
Speaker 1: do about it. I mean, I have my mom working
14:56
Speaker 1: crazy hours, my dad working on the railroad, and we
14:59
Speaker 1: were last key cans. We walked home or god him
15:02
Speaker 1: on our own. That's so true, Nancy, And there's so
15:04
Speaker 1: many parents that are in that exact same circumstance. They
15:07
Speaker 1: both have to work to put food on the table.
15:09
Speaker 1: They do everything they can to strategize the way their
15:13
Speaker 1: precious young ones walk to and from school or wherever
15:16
Speaker 1: else they need to go. And you're right, you know,
15:18
Speaker 1: everybody's outraged when a child goes missing, but it's also
15:22
Speaker 1: true that they need to consider these circumstances, and certainly
15:26
Speaker 1: not start pointing the finger. Especially, hey, in those initial
15:30
Speaker 1: days once a child is missing, you can only imagine
15:33
Speaker 1: that what the parents are feeling. They also don't need
15:35
Speaker 1: to be blamed for it. So what we know is
15:38
Speaker 1: she's last seen then Tony to Stephano getting on the bus,
15:42
Speaker 1: right down to her red jacket. What happened then, Tony.
15:47
Speaker 1: Do we know if she ever made it home? Well,
15:51
Speaker 1: she never made it home. And the only thing that
15:54
Speaker 1: we know for sure is after she got on the bus,
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Speaker 1: she was found in the dumpster in a garbage bag.
16:04
Speaker 1: I think the date was February fourth. Well, it was
16:08
Speaker 1: actually found on the twenty eighth, but got on the
16:11
Speaker 1: bus on February twenty fourth, so four days later, right,
16:15
Speaker 1: four days later? And did you say her body was
16:18
Speaker 1: in a garbage bag? Yeah, wrapped It was wrapped in
16:22
Speaker 1: a trash bag. I don't know if because she was
16:25
Speaker 1: in it or it was wrapped up, you know, a
16:27
Speaker 1: sort of a exterior. But that's the garbage bag was
16:31
Speaker 1: part of it. Okay, Jackie, is I wish you could
16:33
Speaker 1: see this is acting out that she was in a
16:37
Speaker 1: garbage bag. So, Joe Scott Morgan, I know that that
16:40
Speaker 1: perterior straight up when you hear a garbage bag explain, yeah,
16:44
Speaker 1: because you began to think that whoever did this, whoever
16:49
Speaker 1: did this and perpetrated this crime, was prepared, Nancy. At
16:52
Speaker 1: least they had an awareness of what was going on.
16:55
Speaker 1: They wanted to conceal the body. So that tells us
16:57
Speaker 1: a lot about the perpetrator that they didn't just leave
17:00
Speaker 1: her out resting somewhere. They took tom to wrap her
17:04
Speaker 1: body or I'd like to refer to it as cocooning,
17:07
Speaker 1: and then take the body and deposit the body in
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Speaker 1: a dumpster. And that goes to a whole nother level
17:13
Speaker 1: of the activity that this criminal was involved in, Nancy.
17:16
Speaker 1: And joining me right now is a very special guest,
17:19
Speaker 1: joining US doctor Monte Miller, Director Forensic DNA Experts, LLC,
17:25
Speaker 1: and the former forensics scientists for the Texas Department of
17:28
Speaker 1: Public Safety State Crime Lab. And let me tell you something,
17:33
Speaker 1: having been a public servant myself, there is no shortage
17:37
Speaker 1: of cases. I told you that every week I get
17:40
Speaker 1: about one hundred and fifty new felonies. The grand jury
17:43
Speaker 1: would would just churn them out. And a high crime
17:47
Speaker 1: area like inner City Atlanta, same way at crime labs. Man,
17:51
Speaker 1: you learn it on the job. In addition to all
17:55
Speaker 1: those degrees you've got up on your wall, doctor Miller,
17:58
Speaker 1: you are literally under the gun at the crime lab
18:02
Speaker 1: and see thousands of cases. Let me ask you a
18:06
Speaker 1: very narrow question. First of all, welcome doctor Monty Miller.
18:10
Speaker 1: But a garbage bag where the victim, the little victim
18:14
Speaker 1: is in or wrapped in a garbage bag, that should
18:18
Speaker 1: be a treasure true of the defendants DNA? Why well,
18:24
Speaker 1: first of all, um, you know, a garbage bag is
18:28
Speaker 1: an excellent way to just keep everything together when you
18:30
Speaker 1: don't have an insight of something. Um, you can get
18:33
Speaker 1: spread everywhere. But I mean other than that, really, it's
18:36
Speaker 1: that it keeps everything together. When it's in a trash
18:39
Speaker 1: bag or any any kind of a container. You know
18:42
Speaker 1: everything has been there and it doesn't get spread out.
18:45
Speaker 1: The DNA doesn't degrade in the same way, and it
18:47
Speaker 1: can be protected by that plastic bag. So possibly leave
18:52
Speaker 1: DNA even if it's touched DNA on the bag, Oh certainly,
18:57
Speaker 1: I mean if they touched it, and um, it doesn't
18:59
Speaker 1: get into the soil or none of the dirt, and
19:02
Speaker 1: it doesn't get any sunlight or moisture or anything like that,
19:06
Speaker 1: the DNA might last for quite some time, particularly in
19:08
Speaker 1: a cold environment. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace to talk
19:27
Speaker 1: to Angela Arnold Rown Psychologrists joining us out of the
19:29
Speaker 1: Atlanta jurisdiction at Angela Arnold MD dot com. Talk to Angiel.
19:33
Speaker 1: I want to circle back about why very often people
19:37
Speaker 1: blame the victim. Here, you got a thirteen year old
19:39
Speaker 1: little girl getting off a public bus after school, and
19:43
Speaker 1: you've got the parents that allowed her to be a
19:45
Speaker 1: latchkey kid. You know, I think people do that Why
19:49
Speaker 1: they blame the victim or the parents because it makes
19:54
Speaker 1: us or the blamer, the finger pointer feel better. In
19:58
Speaker 1: other words, they might say, oh, that's not gonna happen
20:02
Speaker 1: to me, exactly because the blank I don't hear at
20:08
Speaker 1: that my child take his public bus. I would never
20:11
Speaker 1: let my child walk home from school b s. You
20:14
Speaker 1: know what, because I see children walking home from school
20:18
Speaker 1: every school you can think of the public school, the
20:21
Speaker 1: inner city school, the fancy private school. A lot of
20:24
Speaker 1: people are walking home from school. But it makes the
20:27
Speaker 1: finger pointer feel better and that it's not going to
20:32
Speaker 1: happen to me. It's not going to happen to my
20:34
Speaker 1: child because of feeling the blank X. I don't think
20:39
Speaker 1: there's any hatred toward kreen Iva Toronto or feel Va
20:42
Speaker 1: Toronto or this little girl meanis Soriano or her mom.
20:46
Speaker 1: I think it makes the finger pointer feel more secure
20:50
Speaker 1: and safe because they can rationalize why it would never
20:53
Speaker 1: happen to them, but it could happen to them. That's
20:55
Speaker 1: what they don't get. I think that people are so
20:59
Speaker 1: for of all, people are so shocked when something like
21:02
Speaker 1: this happens. And there's so many crime shows on TV now,
21:05
Speaker 1: and people have become their own sloth almost and so
21:10
Speaker 1: they think they're they think they're doing the right thing
21:12
Speaker 1: by saying, oh, it must have been the parents. It
21:15
Speaker 1: was the parents, Faulter. Maybe the little girl had was
21:18
Speaker 1: wearing the wrong thing that day and she attracted some
21:21
Speaker 1: attention like that. And these kinds of attitudes Nancy, as
21:25
Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, need to change, and they need
21:29
Speaker 1: to be exposed first of all. But you can agree,
21:32
Speaker 1: Phil Vitronto that that attitude, whether it makes the finger pointer,
21:36
Speaker 1: you know, blaming the parent, feel better like it's never
21:40
Speaker 1: going to happen in them, that needs to be exposed
21:43
Speaker 1: because the faster you can get off the parent or
21:45
Speaker 1: the child, the quicker you can get on. Where's the perp?
21:49
Speaker 1: Who's the perp? Phil? Yeah, nancew Unfortunately it doesn't always
21:53
Speaker 1: work that way. You know. They Karna's case, they saw
21:58
Speaker 1: a beautiful young girl. Then you're right, what was she
22:01
Speaker 1: doing with running into sports? Wow, she should have had
22:04
Speaker 1: a sweat shirt on, you know, like it was huf
22:07
Speaker 1: wat and she asked for it and she brought it
22:10
Speaker 1: upon herself. And this is not true. You have a perpetrator.
22:14
Speaker 1: You have a criminal with a criminal mind that's going
22:17
Speaker 1: to do it no matter what the victim looks like. Sure,
22:21
Speaker 1: words are never spoken. Feel of a Toronto and the
22:24
Speaker 1: case we're covering today has special meaning to feel a
22:28
Speaker 1: Toronto and Tony to Stephano joining us. So three days
22:33
Speaker 1: and you, yeah, you're right, it does, it does. Phil
22:37
Speaker 1: to Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor forensics, death investigator, three days
22:42
Speaker 1: passed before the body of this thirteen year old little girl,
22:44
Speaker 1: Mini Soriana is found. How does that hurt the case? Well,
22:50
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that we deal in
22:52
Speaker 1: in medical legal death investigation, Nancy is trying to determine
22:56
Speaker 1: the post mortem interval, and it can certainly harm the
23:00
Speaker 1: case because you'll get degrading of evidence. But the other
23:03
Speaker 1: the upside, I guess, if you're looking for a silver lining,
23:06
Speaker 1: is that it can give us an opportunity to try
23:08
Speaker 1: to match up a timeline as to when she was
23:11
Speaker 1: last seen and at what level her body is degraded
23:14
Speaker 1: at that point in time. Now keep in mind, this
23:17
Speaker 1: is in the winter time, so it's going to be cooler,
23:19
Speaker 1: So to the doctor's point, just a moment ago that's
23:23
Speaker 1: going to preserve the body a little bit longer than say,
23:26
Speaker 1: for instance, if we were in the heat of the summer.
23:29
Speaker 1: So anytime you have this opportunity for evidence to degrade. Also,
23:34
Speaker 1: these changes that are taking place post mortem, that's only
23:37
Speaker 1: going to hurt as opposed to help most of the time.
23:40
Speaker 1: Straight out to Tony to Stephano, a special writer Newsday
23:43
Speaker 1: and author of The Deadly Dawn A Vito Genovesi, Tony
23:47
Speaker 1: explained to me how Mini was murdered and was she
23:54
Speaker 1: sex abuse. To answer the latter question, yes, there was
23:59
Speaker 1: evidence of sex true abuse. It didn't apparently rise to
24:04
Speaker 1: the level of rape, but there was some physical contact.
24:09
Speaker 1: And why was there sperm found on her clothing or
24:12
Speaker 1: her body on her clothing, on her clothing. So it
24:17
Speaker 1: raises a bunch of other questions on what happened to
24:20
Speaker 1: the suspects. What was he doing at that time or
24:23
Speaker 1: was it a well I think I know what he
24:26
Speaker 1: was doing is masturbating girl. Oh, either that or was
24:31
Speaker 1: a premature ejaculation um when he couldn't break her, But
24:36
Speaker 1: he was abused in some way sexually and she died
24:40
Speaker 1: from net compression, which is basically strangulation. Basically to Joe Scott,
24:46
Speaker 1: how do you determine that cod cause of death was
24:48
Speaker 1: net compression? Well, one of the articles that I'd seen
24:51
Speaker 1: Nancy actually mentioned the term throttling, and of course we've
24:54
Speaker 1: heard a lot about that relative to the Potito case.
24:57
Speaker 1: And you know, when you have this throttling event where
25:01
Speaker 1: an individual is using their hands as opposed to a literature,
25:04
Speaker 1: you're going to have diffuse hemorrhage, which means it is
25:06
Speaker 1: spread through the tissues. It's not going to be real specific,
25:10
Speaker 1: so you can have a contusion or a bruise that's
25:13
Speaker 1: going to be much broader, and that gives you an
25:15
Speaker 1: indication and in certain cases, not every case, but In
25:18
Speaker 1: certain cases you can actually make out, say the outline
25:22
Speaker 1: of a handprint or that matches up with a contused
25:26
Speaker 1: area that might give you the appearance that there has
25:29
Speaker 1: been hands applied to the external surface of the neck.
25:32
Speaker 1: So that's what they're looking at here, Nancy. Guys, take
25:35
Speaker 1: a listen to our cut for this as Sefa and
25:38
Speaker 1: Kim ABC seven. This beautiful little girl was treated less
25:43
Speaker 1: than human. It has been twenty two years since a
25:47
Speaker 1: life was cruelly taken, but detectives never gave up on
25:52
Speaker 1: finding justice for her and her family. Thirteen year old
25:56
Speaker 1: minuter at least Oriano, who went by many in nineteen
25:59
Speaker 1: ninety nine, was on her way home in co Op
26:01
Speaker 1: City when she was sexually abused and strangled. Three days
26:04
Speaker 1: after she went missing, her body was discovered in a
26:07
Speaker 1: dumpster in the Bronx dumped like trash. I wan, there's
26:10
Speaker 1: news reporter Sandra Bookman in nineteen ninety nine, police, but
26:13
Speaker 1: much of yesterday looking through the trash at this video
26:16
Speaker 1: store here at the Bay Plaza shopping complex and the
26:19
Speaker 1: Baychester section. Guys, this is what we know about the
26:22
Speaker 1: discovery of her body, the condition it was in she
26:25
Speaker 1: was shoved into garbage bags inside a dumpster behind what
26:28
Speaker 1: used to be a Hollywood video rental store. She was
26:32
Speaker 1: fouled by a homeless man that was digging through the trash.
26:35
Speaker 1: She had been tied with green gaffer tape and placed
26:39
Speaker 1: in a fetal position inside the black garbage bag. She
26:43
Speaker 1: was fully closed. The book bag and the Parka were
26:48
Speaker 1: not with her. The medical examiner determined that there was
26:53
Speaker 1: semen on her sweatshirt, and as you just heard Joe
26:56
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan explained, she died of throttling, which is basically
27:01
Speaker 1: manual strangulation. I'm especially interested in the sperm, the seamen
27:09
Speaker 1: and DNA years ago by and there is no DNA match.
27:17
Speaker 1: Straight out to doctor Monte Miller or Director of Forensic
27:21
Speaker 1: DNA Experts LLC. Doctor monte Miller, again, thank you for
27:24
Speaker 1: being with us. You would expect the killer of this
27:30
Speaker 1: little girl, Mini Soriano, to have committed a crime before,
27:34
Speaker 1: because you rarely go zero to one twenty mph over night,
27:38
Speaker 1: whether it was a child molestation or a rape of
27:41
Speaker 1: somebody else, Peeping tom something that would get his DNA
27:48
Speaker 1: into the DNA data bank, but that did not happen.
27:54
Speaker 1: Tell us if you could, doctor Miller. What is familial DNA. Well,
28:00
Speaker 1: familial DNA is the fact that we all share a
28:03
Speaker 1: certain amount of our DNA with the other members of
28:06
Speaker 1: our family. The Golden State killer was caught by a
28:09
Speaker 1: familial search, although they did that through the databases that
28:13
Speaker 1: are commonly available, the codis database that has all of
28:18
Speaker 1: our criminals in it. They can also do a familial
28:20
Speaker 1: DNA search of it, but they're looking for somebody that's
28:24
Speaker 1: just a close match, and then they're trying to say,
28:27
Speaker 1: is that match similar to what we would get from
28:30
Speaker 1: a brother or from a cousin, and so they try
28:32
Speaker 1: to match it that way, though that's not a very
28:35
Speaker 1: good match because we just don't have enough DNA markers
28:38
Speaker 1: to do a good match. When they do the ancestral
28:41
Speaker 1: DNA which ancestry dot com, mother and me twenty three
28:46
Speaker 1: and me whatever you have, those databases are using like
28:50
Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand DNA matches and so it's much easier
28:54
Speaker 1: to do a familial search that way. But basically they're
28:57
Speaker 1: looking for DNA that has a very similar profile to
29:02
Speaker 1: the one that they found, or one that has a
29:04
Speaker 1: profile that matches. You know, this could be your brother,
29:06
Speaker 1: this could be your matches fifty percent or twenty five percent,
29:10
Speaker 1: but they have so many markers they're able to do
29:13
Speaker 1: much better comparisons with the ancestral DNA sites than they
29:17
Speaker 1: can with the criminal database. So bottom line, the actual
29:22
Speaker 1: killer of thirteen year old Mini couldn't find them through
29:25
Speaker 1: a DNA match. You have your known DNA, which is
29:28
Speaker 1: a sperm the seaman on her clothing, but you hadn't
29:31
Speaker 1: don't know the match. You gotta have somebody to match
29:34
Speaker 1: it too. Time stories with Nancy Grace familial DNA. You
29:53
Speaker 1: run the known DNA the killer's DNA through the system,
29:56
Speaker 1: and with familial DNA you might get a great great
30:00
Speaker 1: great great uncle or a distant cousin or nephew far
30:08
Speaker 1: away from the initial family tree. That's how familial DNA works.
30:15
Speaker 1: And then, like in the case of the Golden State
30:17
Speaker 1: killer D'Angelo and Joseph t'angelo, you'll look at people connected
30:24
Speaker 1: to the victim's DNA, the purpose DNA in the area.
30:31
Speaker 1: Are there any brothers, uncles, cousins, nephews in the area,
30:36
Speaker 1: and you start bit by bit narrowing it down who
30:39
Speaker 1: it could be. So Phil Latronto, you led the campaign
30:44
Speaker 1: for familial DNA to be allowed in evidence. Why well,
30:49
Speaker 1: you basically called me the father of New York familiar DNA.
30:54
Speaker 1: Why is because we had a great sample DNA sample,
30:59
Speaker 1: you know, from Karina's killer, but it didn't match anything.
31:04
Speaker 1: Nothing in code, it's nothing in the state, nothing in federal.
31:08
Speaker 1: So Tony, Tony just fantom our guests right now who
31:12
Speaker 1: told me about filmidliar searching, And he told me what
31:16
Speaker 1: it was. And I said, how come they're not doing this?
31:19
Speaker 1: It's because it's not allowed. And I said, okay, and
31:23
Speaker 1: I started my campaign. And between me, you and Tony,
31:28
Speaker 1: because you, we went on Doctor n and we pushed
31:31
Speaker 1: for it. So you were the celebrity that went nationwide.
31:33
Speaker 1: Tony was the local news guy, and I was the
31:37
Speaker 1: tenacious father. And between us that combination, we got it passed.
31:43
Speaker 1: And we are celebrating the second case in New York State.
31:48
Speaker 1: You know, many was the first in New York City.
31:51
Speaker 1: But even after we found Karina's killer, I still pushed
31:56
Speaker 1: for it because it is all disheartening and so horrible
32:02
Speaker 1: to have a loved one that is killed and knowing
32:06
Speaker 1: someone is walking the streets. You just want justice, you know,
32:11
Speaker 1: you just want this person to be caught. So I
32:16
Speaker 1: wouldn't stop. I wouldn't stop until they listened to me.
32:20
Speaker 1: And frankly, you know, it was a miracle that it
32:25
Speaker 1: even evolved so quickly. We got it done in ten months,
32:29
Speaker 1: which is unheard of. And do you ever reflect Phil
32:32
Speaker 1: the Toronto Antoni to Stefanie. I'll start with you, Phil,
32:36
Speaker 1: that if you had not led that campaign and fought
32:39
Speaker 1: so hard, the family of Mini Soriano to this day
32:45
Speaker 1: would not have justice, no question about it. There's no
32:49
Speaker 1: question about the answer to that is no, they would
32:51
Speaker 1: not have justice. No. Take a listen to our cut five.
32:56
Speaker 1: This is Fawn Kim ABC seven. It proved about four
32:59
Speaker 1: years ago the state. It's called familial DNA and this
33:02
Speaker 1: is the first time this technology has been used to
33:04
Speaker 1: solve a cold case. In New York City. Detectives found
33:08
Speaker 1: the father of the suspect, which then led to Martinez.
33:11
Speaker 1: It's like building a family tree by searching for specific
33:14
Speaker 1: familial DNA. The DNA evidence recovered from Mile's was initially
33:20
Speaker 1: searched with the codest databases, which were the government databases
33:23
Speaker 1: for a direct match. Those results were negative. In two
33:27
Speaker 1: thousand and more. In our cut six, listen. Nobody from
33:30
Speaker 1: her family and none, I mean his friends remember Martinez.
33:33
Speaker 1: But police say he lived in Coob City in nineteen
33:35
Speaker 1: ninety nine. Police say he was living all these years
33:37
Speaker 1: in New Rochelle in plain sight, living a public life,
33:40
Speaker 1: calling himself Jupiter Joe. A YouTube video shows him in
33:43
Speaker 1: public places teaching astronomy to children. If I told you
33:47
Speaker 1: my name was Joe Martinez, would you remember it? His
33:49
Speaker 1: defense attorney says police have the wrong man. He denies
33:53
Speaker 1: these allegations. The cases pretty unusual, and that mister Martinez
33:58
Speaker 1: is forty nine years old. He has no crime history.
34:00
Speaker 1: Do you, doctor Montey Miller, Director Forensics DNA Experts LLC.
34:05
Speaker 1: It's the wrong guy. So you want to tell me
34:08
Speaker 1: that the DNA match, which is very often like one
34:10
Speaker 1: and three trillion possibility, you got the wrong guy one
34:15
Speaker 1: and three trillion. He's saying they've got the wrong guy
34:19
Speaker 1: when it's his sperm on the thirteen year old little
34:23
Speaker 1: girl's clothing. Really, that DNA doesn't lie, Well, they didn't
34:28
Speaker 1: get the wrong guy. I mean the idea that you
34:30
Speaker 1: have DNA that matches perfectly, the chances of you having
34:36
Speaker 1: somebody else that has that same DNA is just astronomical.
34:40
Speaker 1: I mean, if you had the same amount of people
34:42
Speaker 1: as you have on Earth, if you had a billion
34:44
Speaker 1: planets like that, and then you had a billion universes
34:47
Speaker 1: with a billion planets like that, it could still single
34:50
Speaker 1: you out. So unless he has an identical twin, the
34:53
Speaker 1: answer is no. The ship is sailed. The DNA's his
34:57
Speaker 1: and speaking of as he calls himself, jupid to Joe,
35:01
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut nine in the Meteor
35:05
Speaker 1: Minute with Jupiter Joe. Welcome back everyone, to meet your
35:08
Speaker 1: minute on the Local Life. I'm Jupiter Joe. This has
35:11
Speaker 1: been an exciting month for local astronomers, so let's jump
35:13
Speaker 1: right into a cosmic rundown. On December ninth, the Liberty
35:17
Speaker 1: Sign Center in New Jersey unveiled its new Jennifer Chelsea Planetarium,
35:21
Speaker 1: which is the largest, most advanced planetarium. Okay, so I
35:24
Speaker 1: can't take it anymore. He goes on to talk about
35:27
Speaker 1: the Orion nebula blah blah blah blah. The reality is
35:31
Speaker 1: Tony to Stephano, joining us from Newsday, This little girl
35:36
Speaker 1: loved astronomy. She wanted to be an astronaut, and he
35:42
Speaker 1: got that knowledge and he used it to lure this girl,
35:46
Speaker 1: sex abuse her and murder her. Well, it's this is
35:52
Speaker 1: what the prosecution's theory is. We the facts, the full facts,
35:58
Speaker 1: were still sort of treading through and trying to get
36:01
Speaker 1: to the bottom of what he used and what he
36:04
Speaker 1: did with her to try to get her into his
36:06
Speaker 1: orbits and no pun intended is um uh, you know,
36:12
Speaker 1: still the subject of the investigation. Okay, I'm sorry, Tony
36:15
Speaker 1: to Stephanie, could you just clarify something for me. There's
36:18
Speaker 1: two and two still equal four because I'm pretty sure
36:21
Speaker 1: it does, right who Okay, So do you want to
36:25
Speaker 1: tell me, Wendy Patrick, that Jupiter Joe, Jupiter Joe, that
36:31
Speaker 1: it's just a coinkie dank, that this little girl who
36:35
Speaker 1: wanted to be an astronaut and studied astronomy and love
36:38
Speaker 1: the stars, it's just happenstance that he ends up sex
36:45
Speaker 1: at using her his sperm on her jacket. Of course,
36:49
Speaker 1: that was the connection. That's not a huge that's a
36:53
Speaker 1: huge connection. And part of the reason that's going to
36:56
Speaker 1: be it a very important connection as we move forward,
36:59
Speaker 1: is it's an exploitation of this this beautiful curiosity, this building.
37:06
Speaker 1: That's how he knew. That's how he knew that she
37:08
Speaker 1: was accostinating with drama and study. Right, yeah, that's right,
37:13
Speaker 1: and you know that connection in and of itself would
37:16
Speaker 1: be very significant. But then you add on everything else.
37:20
Speaker 1: Let's say we didn't even have the DNA, we're learning
37:22
Speaker 1: that it can't possibly be a coincidence. Because yes, this
37:27
Speaker 1: is something that many young people are interested in, and
37:29
Speaker 1: I was one of them too, But it's just too specific,
37:32
Speaker 1: it's too narrow, and that is one of the main
37:35
Speaker 1: main reasons that I've been going to get moving forward.
37:38
Speaker 1: Bottom line, Toney to STEPHANOI. Here the defense attorney blah blah,
37:41
Speaker 1: blah blah, You've got the wrong man. It just happens
37:43
Speaker 1: to be his semen on her clothing. Well, go ahead, Yeah,
37:50
Speaker 1: what does that tell you? I mean, semen just doesn't
37:52
Speaker 1: fly around the universe and land in any which were right,
37:56
Speaker 1: It's like that is a pretty good indicators. That sounds like, yeah,
38:03
Speaker 1: it's like, uh, it just doesn't you know, it just
38:06
Speaker 1: doesn't compute. Well, the dates what they were, they were.
38:12
Speaker 1: The defense was insinuating that his DNA to kill his
38:16
Speaker 1: DNA made its way on Corina by flying through the
38:21
Speaker 1: ass so it was like magic DNA. And if I
38:24
Speaker 1: may uh make a statement that the police believe that
38:29
Speaker 1: Minnie was killed in his apartment's right? What more do
38:34
Speaker 1: we know? At tourney to stephan I the thing that
38:37
Speaker 1: you know, the DNA on the sweatshirt, and it was
38:40
Speaker 1: on her sweatshirt. It's such a strong indication of a
38:48
Speaker 1: crime that I don't know how the defense is going
38:51
Speaker 1: to try to whiggle around, that they may try to
38:53
Speaker 1: get some sort of lesser offense. But I don't see it.
38:57
Speaker 1: I don't see it. It's just it's just too too
39:02
Speaker 1: strong in my mind. I agree with you, Tony Stephano.
39:07
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut ten Jim Dolan ABC
39:11
Speaker 1: seven Joseph Martinez was in handcuffs tonight, charged with the
39:14
Speaker 1: murder of a thirteen year old girl twenty two years ago.
39:19
Speaker 1: For her family, the years have not closed the wounds,
39:23
Speaker 1: the pain has not ebbed even a bit. We knew
39:26
Speaker 1: it will never happen, because this is today. I would huh,
39:32
Speaker 1: do you would like to read you would like to
39:34
Speaker 1: die for him? You were a very good gun minner
39:38
Speaker 1: Lee's Soriano Minie would be thirty five years old now,
39:42
Speaker 1: but the photographs of her bright, joyful face stop here,
39:47
Speaker 1: police sources tell Eyewitness News the man they say killed
39:51
Speaker 1: her was so sure he'd gotten away with it. He
39:54
Speaker 1: has a public life and calls himself Jupiter Joe. A
39:58
Speaker 1: YouTube video of shows him in public places teaching children astronomy.
40:04
Speaker 1: If I told you my name was Joe Martinez, do
40:07
Speaker 1: you remember it well? I can tell you this, that's
40:10
Speaker 1: the name I'll never forget and I will not be
40:13
Speaker 1: happy until he gets the maximum penalty and that jurisdiction,
40:19
Speaker 1: which is life behind bars a thirteen year old little
40:25
Speaker 1: girl getting off the bus. In addition to all of
40:30
Speaker 1: the investigators, the police, so scientists that worked this case
40:36
Speaker 1: never gave up. I want to thank Phil Vatrano, Victims
40:41
Speaker 1: Right's advocate who pushed for familial DNA in that jurisdiction,
40:46
Speaker 1: and Tony DeStefano joining us from Newsday who also joined
40:51
Speaker 1: the fight for familial DNA to be allowed as evidence.
40:57
Speaker 1: And my message for Joseph Martinez rot in Hell, Nancy
41:04
Speaker 1: Grace Crime Stories signing off, goodbye friend,