Missing Woman Found Dead In Squatter House, Person Of Interest Linked To Previous Attack
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Nine days after Johynita Jordan was reported missing from her Staten Island home, the 69-year-old's body was found in an abandoned home, what neighbor's describe as a squatter house on Van Duzer Street in the Grymes Hill section for Staten Island.
Police are now questioning a "person of interest" in the case and he's allegedly the suspect in the brutal beating of another woman, reports CBS2's Janelle Burrell.
Investigators are questioning 32-year-old Linden Beaton as a person of interest in the Jordan case.
Beaton is a registered sex offender who is already being held after being arrested Friday for the assault of 57-year-old Beatrice Kaliku on Jan. 5.
Kaliku was on her way to a prayer service when she says a stranger attacked her.
"Punch me, try to cover my mouth choke," Kaliku told CBS2 about her ordeal. "And he just took my hair and slammed me to the iron gate."
Someone later found Kaliku and called an ambulance, but her daughter says it took at least a week before police would seriously investigate.
"They said they didn't have enough description, information from my mom cause she was blacked out," said Tryphena Kaliku. "It took me a lot going back and forth cause like I said, they first closed the case out. Once I showed the officer at the precinct this is not something I feel should be swept under the rug."
Police sources say two NYPD personnel are being disciplined for prematurely closing Kaliku's case.
Jordan went missing two weeks after Kaliku's attack. Her body found not far from where Kaliku was attacked.
"Makes me nervous every time I hear the story, because that could've been me," said Beatrice Kaliku.
