Cops Still Tailing Worker From Dead Cleaning Woman's Building

The NYPD has no suspects in the murder of Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who was asphyxiated with construction tape last Tuesday night in an air duct at the building where she worked. But the building's freight elevator operator, 26-year-old Joseph Pabon from Staten Island, is still under surveillance by the NYPD, and last night investigators seized a Pontiac G6 belonging to his girlfriend, Lisa Marie Blumenberg, while the two were at a batting cage. (It's unclear if this is the same car Pabon threw a bowling ball through after allegedly punching and choking Blumenberg in a drunken rage.)

While the couple was hitting some dingers, cops spotted a pair of white women's sneakers inside the Pontiac and got a search warrant for the car, which was returned late last night. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne cautions that investigators "have not identified a suspect in this case. The only person who has is Pabon's attorney." A police source tells the Daily News that Pabon "can't explain the scratches on his hands, arms and neck—or why he left work early the night Rodriguez went missing."

But Pabon's lawyer Mario Gallucci blames the scratches on "minor gardening injuries," insists the sneakers were Blumenberg's, and still says he's mulling a civil lawsuit because police previously questioned his client for 25 hours without offering him food, water or the chance to use the facilities. Gallucci tells the Staten Island Advance, "We deny the allegations completely and we're ready to battle. He was very tired and worn out and very upset at the way he was treated. He did nothing wrong." Tests are expected back today to determine whether Rodriguez was sexually assaulted before she was murdered.