"This man is pure evil,"
- one police investigator said of Kee.
29-year-old Arohn Kee was arrested in February, 2000. He was
at a Miami motel with a 16-year-old girl whom police feared
might be his next victim.
Police believed he was guilty of seven attacks on teenage
girls. Three of those were murdered and four that survived
after being raped and sodomized.
It would seem that police were right to suspect him because
after a few weeks of being locked up and faced with DNA
evidence linking him to the crimes Kee admitted his guilt.
Unfortunately the press didn't feel the need to properly
report on exactly what this evidence was in this largely
ignored case. Perhaps this had something to do with all the
victims (as well as their killer) living in Harlem.
Anyway, I'll tell you what I was able to find out about the
murders:
The first victim, Johalis Castro, 19, was burned alive on a
rooftop. I think this quote from the fireman that found her
still burning corpse is a pretty good description: "I came
upon what I thought at the time was a piece of rubbish, or
furniture, burning. It was a person . . . on her back, her
legs in the air, one leg burned off, not much left of the
other." Johalis was dating Kee and allegedly trying to break
it off, at the time.
The second victim was Rasheda Taylor. She lived in the same
apartment complex as Kee, at East 111th Street and First
Avenue, when she was murdered on June 2, 1998, three days
after her 18th birthday. Kee strangled her with his hands as
he kneeled on her chest so forcefully, he left knee-sized
bruises just under her collarbones.
Paola Illera, at 13, was the youngest, and final, murder
victim. Coroners found purple, finger-shaped bruises along
her thighs, which they said are consistent with her
resisting as her killer pried open her legs. Doesn't leave
too much to the imagination as to what happened to her prior
to her death. For some reason I find it amusing (and just
had to add) that she was wearing a New Kids on the Block
watch.
Arohn Kee was convicted in December, 2000, of 22 crimes
including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, rape,
sodomy and robbery. He was sentenced to life in January
2001.
QUOTES FROM THE
SURVIVORS:
"He told me to be quiet and take it like a woman," testified
a 13- year-old victim who'd been heading home from a skating
rink.
"He told me I was lucky" to be raped by such a handsome man,
said a 15-year-old victim.
"He told me to act like I loved him," said a 14-year-old
victim.
AN INTERESTING BIT:
Even though Kee seems as though he would be a pretty stupid
guy he wasn't. Once, when he was held on a petit-larceny
charge, he declined a cheek swab (Police lied and told him
that it was a "tuberculosis test"). Apparently, just before
signing a consent form, that he was a Jehovah's Witness,
opposed to invasive medical procedures. A good way of
getting around that pesky DNA test if police have no
warrant.
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