Source: Noam Galai / Getty
Police believe that a Connecticut man they arrested for the murder of a young nurse in Queens, New York, is a serial killer that preyed on woman through dating and driving apps.
A few weeks ago, Samantha Stewart’s body was found in her apartment. The medical examiner determined she had been beaten and strangled.
She was only 29-years-old.
According to the New York Times, Danueal Drayton was arrested last week in a Los Angeles hotel room when he used Stewart’s credit card to buy a one way ticket to California.
Police found him with a woman he allegedly raped and was holding captive. Apparently, he met the victim online.
Drayton pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, forcible rape, and false imprisonment by violence charges.
Sources told ABC News that Drayton, 27, admitted to police that he is also responsible for three deaths in NYC and seven total in the U.S. However, there is no evidence to back up those claims.Police are hoping people he may have attacked, but didn’t kill, will come forward.
“If you look at the body of work, what just took place, it’s not much of a stretch unfortunately to think that there are going to be other victims,” Chief Shea said in a press conference in New York last week.
“We need those victims. We need them to come forward for a lot of different reasons.”
Shea also believes that Drayton is connected to a rape in Brooklyn.
One of his exes, Zynea Barney, recently told ABC News that Drayton seemed like a “dream guy” at first.
“We would talk all night, all day, regular conversation,” she said. “No red flags, nothing. Just you know — the perfect guy.”
“He carried himself very well in conversation,” she said.
“Like, he showed that he was very interested in what you talked about, what you had going on.”
But that all changed when he allegedly beat her six months later after she broke up with him.
In the meantime, Drayton’s bail has been set at $1.25 million.
The Times noted that Stewart was remembered as “both empathetic and caring” by Kerri Scanlon, the chief nursing officer at North Shore University Hospital where she cared for epilepsy and stroke patients.
“She was also clinically superb,” Ms. Scanlon said.
Stewart’s mother told the newspaper her daughter an amazing smile.
“It was the most beautiful smile,” Ms. Wright Stewart said.
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