Arrest Made in 27-Year Murder of Latina in New York

(AP Photo/Josh Anderson) (2009 AP)

After 25 years of wondering who killed her daughter and left her body in a parking lot under a Brooklyn Expressway in New York on New Years Eve, Rosa Torres may soon have an answer.

Thanks to a DNA match New York City police Thursday announced the arrest of 53-year-old Edwin Alcaide in the 1987 killing of 19-year old Lissette Torres. Alcaide, a habitual felon with a rap sheet that included busts for rape, robbery, assault and drug, was arrested when he arrived at his scheduled parole visit in Manhattan.

The 19-year old Torres left her home in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn on the last day of 1986 telling her family she’d be back home to celebrate the New Year later in the evening. Instead authorities found her stabbed body in the parking lot of an auto-body shop on January 1, 1987.

I thank God I can now die in peace.
— Rosa Torres

“We visit her in the cemetery twice a month and on holidays. Halloween was always her favorite. I never forget. I go pray, put balloons and flowers as if she were still here with us,” her mother Rosa told the New York Daily News. “I was always expecting her to walk in the door, because for me she was never dead.”

Jose Garcia, the husband of to Lissette’s sister, Lourdes, said he knew Alcaide from the neighborhood.

“I worked at a clothing store at the time of the murder and this guy lived in the apartment behind the store with his mother,” García said. “He was always weird. His looks, his kangol hat, just weird. He was always around the neighborhood, except when he was in jail."

The family said the arrest of Alcaide is a huge relief for them and puts some closure on the case.

“I thank God I can now die in peace,” Rosa Torres, according to the New York Post.