Buffalo Bike Path Rapist caught

[skcin]

Some of you might remember hearing about the Bike Path Rapist here, when he killed someone else just this past fall before the October storm. Well, the good news is that they think they've got him. The bad news is that they should have had him more than once over the past 25 years.

The scary news is that this guy lives less than 2 miles from my house.


http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...17/1017758.asp

In hindsight, 2 missed chances

Police had opportunities to connect Altemio C. Sanchez with a rape in 1981and a killing in 1990, but he didn't become a suspect until the last two weeks.

By DAN HERBECK and GENE WARNER
News Staff Reporters
1/17/2007

Police had opportunities to connect Altemio C. Sanchez with a rape in 1981
and a killing in 1990, but he didn't become a suspect until the last two weeks.


If Altemio C. Sanchez is the Bike Path Killer, he caught two breaks from police that enabled him to continue a 25-year career of murder and sexual assault.
After a woman was raped in Delaware Park in 1981, the victim told Buffalo police she noticed her attacker driving a car in Amherst. Investigators questioned the car's owner - Sanchez's uncle - but never pursued the lead far enough to determine that Sanchez sometimes used the car, police said.

After the slaying of Linda Yalem in 1990, a co-worker of Sanchez's told police he had seen Sanchez on the Ellicott Creek Bike Path within days of the killing. Amherst detectives questioned Sanchez and took his fingerprints but never took a DNA sample that could have linked him to the slaying, police said.

In both cases, law enforcement officials say, carrying the investigation a few steps further might have saved other women from being attacked.

"They had him, and they let him go," said a police source familiar with the investigation. "If they had taken blood from [Sanchez], as they did from many others, they could have stopped two other women from being murdered."

Investigators might have missed two good opportunities to catch Sanchez, but in both situations, police defend their actions.

"Back in 1981, the personnel in our department received a lead, took it very seriously and pursued it," said Dennis T. Richards, Buffalo police chief of detectives. "The investigation stalled because of a lie told by Sanchez's uncle, not because of any lack of effort from our people."

"I wish we could have caught [Sanchez] a lot earlier. We could have spared some women and their families from a lot of suffering," said Larry Bainbridge, a retired Amherst police detective who spent years working on the Yalem murder case. "I'm sorry we didn't catch him sooner, but it wasn't for any lack of trying."

The use of DNA evidence was in its infancy in 1981, and the use of DNA samples was much more difficult to arrange in 1990 than it is now, police said.

Sanchez, 48, a married factory worker from Cheektowaga who has two sons, was arrested Monday morning. Police believe he killed Yalem and two other women and sexually attacked at least five others.

Police acknowledged that Sanchez's name came up long ago in the Yalem case but that it was only in the last two weeks that investigators began an all-out pursuit of him in the bike path case.


Rapist is noticed at mall

The first missed opportunity came in April 1981, after a 21-year-old Buffalo State College student was raped in Delaware Park. According to police officials, the woman noticed her attacker - now believed to be Sanchez - driving a car near Boulevard Mall in Amherst three days after the rape.

The woman wrote down the license number and called police. Buffalo police detectives traced the vehicle to Sanchez's uncle, Wilfredo Sanchez Caraballo, and questioned Caraballo. Police said Caraballo told them the car had not been used in a month. {This uncle now says he lied about that - Sanchez DID use his car that day!}
According to Richards, an investigator took a picture of Caraballo and showed it to the victim, in an array of other photos. The woman did not identify anyone in the array as her attacker. The investigation stalled there.

Should police have investigated further to determine whether anyone else had used the car? Should police have suspected that Caraballo was lying?

"That's a very tough call to make, without knowing exactly what was said between the woman and the detective," said Michael T. Kelly, a former homicide prosecutor for the Erie County district attorney's office.

"Once the woman looked at the photo array and said, "That isn't the man who attacked me,' they may have concluded that this was a dead end. It's hard to conclude exactly what was done without talking to the officers who handled it back then."

The officers involved have since retired, and Richards said he has not spoken with them about the case.

Asked about Yalem

It irks Amherst police to know that Sanchez was questioned and fingerprinted - but never charged - more than 15 years ago. The Amherst department received a tip about Sanchez sometime after Yalem was slain Sept. 29, 1990.

Police said one of Sanchez's co-workers at the then-American Brass Co. plant told Amherst detectives that he had seen Sanchez near the Ellicott Creek Bike Path within a few days of Yalem's murder. Police said the co-worker asked Sanchez what he was doing there, and Sanchez responded that his wife had been taking classes at the nearby University at Buffalo.

When detectives questioned Sanchez, he told them he hadn't even been on the bike path. And detectives learned that his wife was taking classes at Buffalo State College, not UB, police said.

Amherst detectives obtained fingerprints from Sanchez but did not get DNA samples. After the fingerprints failed to match up with a fingerprint from a water bottle found near the site of an earlier attack in Amherst, police lost interest in Sanchez as a suspect.

Amherst police officials said little Tuesday about the incident, and Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark declined to comment on it.

Clark and Amherst police Capt. Timothy M. Green did confirm that Sanchez was looked at in the probe.

"When you look at all the people we've looked at, we probably had a thousand names that were given to us or that we developed through our sources," Green said. "There was always the possibility that someone we may have looked at at some point was responsible."

Kelly said, "If the facts you've given me are accurate, the Amherst police absolutely should have carried this investigation further."

According to Kelly, if Amherst detectives had any suspicions that Sanchez was lying, they should have investigated further and asked for DNA.

"If the man refuses to give the DNA, you've got more reasons to be suspicious of him," Kelly said.

Bainbridge, who retired from the Amherst police in 1999, said he did not recall working on the Sanchez file. But he said Amherst detectives investigated tips about "hundreds" of potential suspects and rarely requested DNA samples from them.

"At various times, every single member of our Detective Bureau worked on leads," Bainbridge said. "In those days, it was not easy to get a DNA sample, and it took three or four months to get it examined in the crime lab. You would want to have a real strong case against someone before you'd ask for that."

In hindsight, Bainbridge wishes his department had investigated Sanchez more thoroughly.

"We all worked hard on that case. I got to know Linda Yalem's sister very well during the investigation," Bainbridge said. "When I heard about the [Sanchez] arrest on Monday, it was very bittersweet for me. I was glad that they caught him. But for the families, I wish it had happened a lot sooner."

[DavidMn]

Jesus Paula, how F***ING creepy is that! I wonder if you can consider him a serial killer since he's "only" killed 2?

[skcin]

The only thing that worries me is the way they got him. Apparently, 3 different police departments became more & more suspicious of him (as the article said, he's been a minor suspect over the years.) They got together & got a warrant to search his home, as well as following him to a restaurant. They told the wait staff not to wash any of his utensils/glasses - that's where they got the DNA. Good God, I hope this was all legal & 100% accurate.

On a sick note - he ran in the Linda Yalem Memorial Run in 1996.

[DavidMn]

Originally Posted by skcin

On a sick note - he ran in the Linda Yalem Memorial Run in 1996.

That right there proves these motherF***ERS have no concept of other peoples lives!

[skcin]

Originally Posted by DavidMn

Jesus Paula, how F***ING creepy is that! I wonder if you can consider him a serial killer since he's "only" killed 2?

Very creepy. Especially when I just started running in the last 6 months & I laughed off people's jokes about looking out for him - he always attacked in more affluent areas, so I assumed I was safe. Being poor & all. I mean, I'm always careful, I take my phone, I don't wear a ponytail or anything around my neck to be grabbed by someone, I don't listen to loud music, etc. But still. Holy sh*t.

He's actually suspected in more than that (at least 3, perhaps 4 or 5), but they claim they're going with the cases that have the strongest DNA evidence.

[DavidMn]

Originally Posted by skcin

Very creepy. Especially when I just started running in the last 6 months & I laughed off people's jokes about looking out for him - he always attacked in more affluent areas, so I assumed I was safe. Being poor & all. I mean, I'm always careful, I take my phone, I don't wear a ponytail or anything around my neck to be grabbed by someone, I don't listen to loud music, etc. But still. Holy sh*t.

He's actually suspected in more than that (at least 3, perhaps 4 or 5), but they claim they're going with the cases that have the strongest DNA evidence.

I'll tell you what you said about him running in a race named after the woman he killed. There's a guy named Richard Allen Davis, he took Polly Klaas from her hom and killed her. SO at his sentencing, he flips the birdie to the camera, and with the girls father in court says "Before I killed her, she said just dont do me like my dad did." I'm just glas this scum is off the street and cant harm you or any other women!

[skcin]

^ For now. He hasn't been tried & convicted yet. I just hope that it really is him, that they didn't screw up.

[bikerchic]

Originally Posted by skcin

The scary news is that this guy lives less than 2 miles from my house.

I guess my concern wasn't so far fetched after all

[skcin]

Originally Posted by bikerchic

I guess my concern wasn't so far fetched after all

No, mom, it wasn't.

[amber]

I didn't even reply before cause this freaked me out so much. I became freaked out when you listed your running things and "pepper spray" and "taser" weren't mentioned. Why do all weird killers in Buffalo live mere miles from your house?!
I'm so glad you are safe. And you should get some bear spray. My mom sent me some, I take it hiking with me.

On a worse note, I was watching a TV show the other day on PBS, about this Indian lady who worked to help sex workers in India get out - and she had some statistics - At least 25% of the people who frequent the sex trade of small children in various countries are American. Then she said "we need to be asking why so many people in America want to sleep with small children". And I agreed, and the next day, you posted this, and whoever posted the thing about the guy hanging and raping his wife while filming videos.

There is some serious sickness with our society about power and sex and violence. I've only figured out parts of it, but I am now recently convinced that the rise in these types of offenses isn't just related to the rise in population. I studied, and thought, "was this always happening, but does it just seems more now because America is more populous?" And I decided, no, that the problem has increased expotentially but not in a ratio where mere numbers of population would account for it.
I could say a bunch more about why I think that happens, but I won't. But I will say that within a few generations this thing has exploded, and is already a huge problem with very few solutions.

Have a nice day!!!

sorry, this just sickens me so much, and I think there is a reason for it, and I'm trying to figure that reason out, and the reason is large and complex and societal and media-al, and it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. We are no longer talking about some random guy, we are talking about 1 in 20 or 15 guys who are molesters of young. Sadly, when they go to Thailand or India or wherever to do their thing, little can be done about it. In these overpopulated countries, this is a huge economic incentive. Kids are to be thrown away and used for assholes who like to sleep with kids. Their parent sell them.
I have my theories on how to solve these countries economic problems and all, but...it's just not gonna work if people keep having kids that they can't afford to keep. But even so, I still think that people who utilize these kids in foreign countries should be aggressively sought after for punishment. We need some serious foreign policing. Because, while these people have more chance of being caught in America (though not as much as you hope) they have so little chance of being caught in foreign countries, where the child sex trade is an important part of the economics. So.Ugly.

There was a whole gov't of Argentina, I think, who were doing this with young boys. Like, the whole gov't was in on it. They were all doing it. That is some scary sh*t, and also, what the hell is wrong with men?! I don't want to think that, I like men, lots, but I am becoming ever more jaded by the second. Seriously, what is the genetic thing that makes men do this?

[skcin]

It took over 20 years, but an innocent man is finally free. Thank God for DNA. Of course, this poor man (who's schizophrenic) now has to adjust to life outside, culture shock, and try to maintain his mental health. He didn't even know what a cell phone was - it won't be easy.

BTW - the DA's office claims they had asked for DNA samples years ago when they were thinking of re-opening several old rape cases & were told by the countty hospital that they didn't have them. Well, they did - the whole damn time.

http://www.buffalonews.com/101/story/49773.html

I’m grateful for the chance to live again’
Unjustly imprisoned for 22 years, a son of the West Side returns to his roots on Easter
By Tom Buckham NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 04/09/07 6:29 AM


It was like old times — very happy times — when Anthony Capozzi, before sitting down Sunday to his first home-cooked Easter dinner in more than two decades, left his parents’ Jersey Street home for a few minutes to stroll down Fargo Avenue with his younger brother, Albert J. Capozzi Jr.

Pausing to light up a cigarette, he noticed neighbor Jim Messina getting into his sport utility vehicle across the street.

“It doesn’t look like the same neighborhood,” Capozzi called out. “It looks brand-new. Every house is painted.”

That, Messina said, walking over to say hello, reflects the strong sense of community amid the well-kept Victorian houses not far from Kleinhans Music Hall.

Residents who have known the Capozzis for decades tied blue ribbons around curbside trees in the neighborhood to welcome Anthony back after his release Tuesday from Central New York Psychiatric Center.

Capozzi was convicted in 1985 of two Delaware Park rapes that DNA evidence recently linked to Altemio C. Sanchez, the alleged Bike Path Killer.

“I never meant any harm to anybody. What did they get me for — being strange?” said Capozzi, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the mid-1970s.

“We knew you didn’t do anything,” Messina said. “Don’t forget that.”

“Well, I hope I’m not keeping you,” Capozzi said, turning to head home.

“Are you kidding me?” Messina said. “It’s a pleasure to see you. Take it slow, OK?”

“Sure, I’ll take it slow,” Capozzi said.

As he paused to point out the spot where he and several boyhood friends lit up cigarettes for the first time, Victoria Christopher approached with a photograph of Capozzi’s eighth-grade class at Holy Cross School.

Looking at the faces, he rattled off the names as if it were yesterday. The picture of a pretty brunette brought him up short. Where was she now? he asked Christopher, who taught fourth grade at the former Niagara Street school when Capozzi was a student.

“She’s married. She lives in Arizona,” Christopher said. Capozzi was deflated.

“I haven’t dated a girl in so long, and I’m just a kid,” he said. “How old am I?” Fifty, he was reminded.

“I went to all of Anthony’s basketball games,” Christopher said. “The girls loved him. He was such a good-looking kid.”

Back at the house of Albert Sr. and Mary Capozzi, lasagna and ham were in the oven, and three tables stretched end-toend from the dining room into the living room to accommodate the 24 family members who gathered to celebrate a religious holiday made all the more special because of Anthony’s release earlier in the week.

Applause greeted the family early in the day when they arrived for Mass in Holy Angels Catholic Church on Porter Avenue.

The Capozzis’ high-spirited gatherings were never the same after he went to prison, his father said. “Every Easter was sad; it was an empty feeling.”

Many of Anthony’s 15 nieces and nephews were very young or not yet born when he went away, said his sister Pamela Guenther. She and her two sisters turned prison visits into family outings so the kids could get to know him.

Though he will not sleep again in his former bedroom in the Jersey Street house, the family believes that with proper medical care, Anthony Capozzi will be able to live independently at some point.

“It’s a long road ahead, but that’s what we’re hoping,” Guenther said.

Her brother Anthony is content to take freedom one step at time.

“I’m grateful,” he said, “for the chance to live again.”

[BTFLCHLD]

wow thanks for the update Paula.