The Gruesome Murders That Shook New York City in 2024

2024 is a particularly violent year in New York City history. Several murders have shocked even the most jaded residents with their savagery and brutality. DailyNews recalls the most shocking crimes in the city in the past year.

UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassinated

26 year old Luigi Mangione accused of murdering general UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Thompson was killed outside the New York Hilton in midtown Manhattan. After a five-day manhunt, Mangione was found at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Mangione, a graduate of a private Baltimore high school and an Ivy League computer science student, was extradited to New York on Dec. 19. Mangione faces federal charges of murder, stalking and firearms offenses. The charges carry the death penalty.

Despite being charged with the cold-blooded murder of a father of two, Mangione's apparent anger at the health insurance industry has sparked an outpouring of support and sympathy for him. He is due back in court in Manhattan in January.

Body of Russian-speaking woman in duffel bag in Manhattan closet

The body of 52-year-old Nadya Vitel was discovered by her son, 19-year-old Mikhail Medvedev. He had not heard from his mother and came to the apartment on the afternoon of March 14. According to police, he knew his mother was there because they tracked each other's whereabouts through their mobile apps.

On the subject: Illegal Teens Robbing New Yorkers En Masse: Police Can't Do Anything Because of Criminals' Young Age

A pair of squatters had killed a woman four days earlier, stolen her credit card and car, and fled.

The criminals sped across the George Washington Bridge from New Jersey into Pennsylvania, where they eventually crashed the SUV in Lower Paxton Township. Hallie Tejada, 19, of Manhattan, and Kensley Alston, 18, of the Bronx, were nabbed in York, Pennsylvania. Before their arrest, they used the victim's card to buy rings and became engaged. They face multiple charges, including murder, concealing a human body, and grand larceny.

Wheelchair-bound ex-con accused of killing roommate

On July 5, a woman's body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag. It had been placed on a cart and left at a garbage dump on East 27th Street near Third Avenue. The victim was identified as 31-year-old Buffalo State College senior Yazmin Williams.

Neighborhood residents immediately began to suspect Chad Irish, 55, who lived two blocks from where the body was found. A video appeared on social media showing a man in a wheelchair dumping Williams' body. Williams was his roommate.

After several neighbors attacked Irish and he pulled out a gun, the police arrested him.

Irish was charged with murder, concealment of a human body, falsification of evidence and illegal possession of weapons.

Bollywood star's sister charged with killing two in Queens arson

On November 26, Alia Fakhri, sister of Bollywood star Nargis Fakhri, was arrested for murder and arson.

The arson attack killed her ex-boyfriend Edward Jacobs, 35, and his new girlfriend Anastasia Ettienne, 33.

The fire started on November 2 in a cluttered two-story garage in Queens. Jacobs was inside the garage when the fire broke out. Fakhri allegedly entered the garage, screaming, “You’re going to die today!” before setting the building on fire.

Ettienne died trying to pull Jacobs out of the burning garage.

"It was an abusive relationship. Fakhri was telling everyone that she was going to burn his house down, that she was going to kill him. We just laughed at her," the witness said.

Bronx Woman Murdered by Former Celebrity Photographer

Jacqueline Tyminski was hit over the head with a weight by former celebrity photographer Benjamin Lozovsky.

Before the pandemic, Lozovsky was a fixture in the fashion and entertainment elite circles. He was a photographer in high demand.

Lozovsky, 41, was found naked and bloodied on the lawn of Tyminski's Bronx home on Sept. 8. He had smashed her head with a weight. The pair had met the day before and went to the victim's home to take drugs.

Lozovsky did not take medication for his bipolar disorder.

His trial will take place on January 15.

Parents starve 4-year-old boy to death in Harlem home

It's horrific that the boy was starved by his own parents. But the death of 4-year-old Jameik Modlin was even more horrific because he died in an apartment that was stocked with food.

The house where the starving boy spent his last days was a hellhole. The food cabinets were locked and the refrigerator was turned to the wall so that Jameik and his sisters could not open it.

His sisters, aged 5, 6 and 7, managed to survive the same horrific conditions. None of them could eat solid food when they were rescued in October.

The boy's mother, Naytavia Ragsdale, 26, was jailed after Jamake was found unconscious, exhausted and suffering from hypothermia outside their apartment on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. near W. 145th St.

A few days later, the boy's father, Laron Modlin, 25, was also arrested.

Body dismembered in Bronx, then burned on Yonkers street

It all started in August when police found charred body parts dumped under a Yonkers bridge. The trail led officers to a Bronx apartment on Rogers Place near Dawson Street.

There, investigators found a black bag in the freezer. It contained a human leg. They also found a pot of bleach on the kitchen floor. Two hands were sticking out of it.

A man and a woman who were renting a room in an apartment were caught on camera.

Muhammad Aadeel, 40, and Roni Harris, 18, have been charged with the murder of 46-year-old Lutalo Henderson.

Aadil and Harris allegedly killed Henderson after an argument at the home Aadil shared with Henderson. They then wrapped the body in trash bags and transported it in a shopping cart to Yonkers on the Metro North train.

They set fire to a shopping cart under the Oak Street Bridge.

Police used surveillance footage to trace the murder to the Bronx.

Custody battle ends in murder and suicide

In July, New York City was rocked by a murder-suicide on the Upper East Side, just a block from the mayor's heavily guarded residence.

Single mother Marisa Galloway, 45, was shot to death by her ex-mother-in-law Kathleen Lee over a bitter custody battle that reached its deadly climax just half a block from Gracie Mansion.

The shooting suspect's son is the father of Galloway's 4-year-old daughter. Authorities said Lee, 65, shot Galloway outside a white Honda Civic on East 88th Street around 9 a.m. July 26 before turning the gun on herself.

Galloway's other daughter, a 1-year-old girl, was in the car. She was not injured.

In her suicide note, Lee described herself as terminally ill with cancer and accused Galloway of child abuse, an allegation that was dismissed by city child services investigators.

Artist Killed by Benevolent Boyfriend at Upscale Hamptons Spa

A Brooklyn artist was murdered in October at an upscale Hamptons spa by her ex-boyfriend, who later killed himself.

Sabina Rosas, 33, was a participant in the 2021 Technology Immersion Program at Harvestworks, a New York City nonprofit that helps artists create work using technology. She received a fellowship that spring.

Rosas was due to move to Portugal in November. She launched a GoFundMe over the summer asking for donations to help pay for the move as a birthday present.

Her boyfriend, Thomas Gannon, who later killed her, donated $1000, making him the hero.

"You have an amazing gift and soon the whole world will see it," he wrote on the fundraising page. "I love you."

Rosas, 33, had been staying at the posh Shou Sugi Ban House spa in Water Mill with Gannon, 56. He was later seen leaving the center alone before shooting himself at his home in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

Rosas was married but lived separately from her husband.

Man Sets Homeless Woman on Fire While Sleeping in NYC Subway

A woman sat motionless on an F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn around 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 22 when a man calmly walked up to her and used a lighter to set her clothes on fire.

The victim was engulfed in flames within seconds.

On the The video footage from the surveillance cameras shows, as the arsonist sits on a bench and watches the woman burn.

Sapeta-Calil, 33, is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. He was deported in 2018 but later returned to the U.S. He was charged with first-degree murder and arson. Officials say the attack was random.

Police released body camera photos of the suspect. Three New York City schoolchildren recognized him and called the police.