Overview
- Velasquez, 59, was arraigned Jan. 15 in Queens Supreme Court and remanded without bail, with a March 6 return date set by Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant.
- A Queens grand jury on Jan. 12 indicted him on second-degree murder in the 1998 strangulation of an unidentified woman at the Turf Motel in Astoria.
- OCME testing in May 2023 developed a suspect profile and matched DNA from the victim’s underwear and fingernails to Velasquez.
- The victim was found on Jan. 12, 1998 in Room 119, concealed under a mattress with a scarf around her neck, and the medical examiner ruled ligature strangulation.
- The victim remains unidentified as the DA’s Cold Case Unit continues public appeals, and Velasquez denied ever being at the motel during a January 2025 NYPD interview; he is already imprisoned for a separate 1999 murder, according to records.