Joseph Pabon was denied bail after his arraignment on second-degree murder charges yesterday. Pabon is accused of killing Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who worked at lower Manhattan office building 2 Rector Street, where Pabon was a freight elevator operator. Pabon's lawyer said his client would plead not guilty and said of the police evidence, "I think there is a problem." more ›

After monitoring him for a week, police arrested Joseph Pabon in connection to the murder of a cleaning woman in a lower Manhattan office building. Police spokesman Paul Browne said, "We have linked DNA of Joseph Pabon of Staten Island to the murder of the cleaning lady at Rector Street." The Post reports that DNA found under murder victim Eridania Rodriguez's nails matched Pabon's: "Police said Pabon tried to sexually assault Rodriguez, but she fought back so ferociously that she scratched his hands and arms and squeezed him so fiercely that she left a palm print." more ›

It's been almost a week since the bound corpse of cleaning woman Eridania Rodriguez was found in an air duct at the Rector Street building where she worked, and almost two weeks since the mother of three first disappeared. And though cops have been tailing the building's freight elevator operator, Joseph Pabon of Staten Island, investigators still don't have enough to actually arrest him. This despite the fact that Pabon left early from work the night Rodriguez disappeared and had scratches on his neck, hands and arms, plus bruises on his biceps and the inside of his elbows that looked like fingerprints. Oh, and a hand-shaped bruise on his waist! Last night investigators got a warrant to bring Pabon in for additional fingerprinting, and then they let him go. A DNA test was conducted on Rodriguez, but if the results are in they haven't yet been leaked to the press. Pabon's lawyer tells the Daily News, "My sources say they are having a very difficult time trying to tie him to this crime." Meanwhile, cops and reporters continue to monitor Pabon's every move; last night he went to Popeye's at 9 p.m., in case you were wondering. more ›

Joseph Pabon, 26, of Staten Island, has not been charged or even called a suspect in the slaying of 46-year-old Eridania Rodriguez, whose bound body was found stuffed in an air duct Saturday in the Financial District building where she worked as a cleaning woman. But plainclothes cops are still tailing him 24 hours a day, and so is the press. With no new developments in the investigation to report, the Post has been digging into Pabon's past, and today the tabloid airs some dirty laundry on the elevator operator's family. more ›

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.) more ›

More grisly details have emerged from an investigation into the murder of Eridania Rodriguez, a 46-year-old cleaning woman who vanished during her shift at 2 Rector Street Tuesday night and was found dead at the building Saturday morning. After futilely searching a Pennsylvania landfill for her remains, some 100 officers returned to the building Saturday to search the building from top to bottom. The corpse of a woman strongly believed to be Rodriguez was found in an air duct on the 12th floor, which was under construction and had restricted access. more ›

Yesterday, the body of a woman missing since last Tuesday night was found stuffed into the air conditioning vent of a Financial District buliding. The Post reports that Eridania Rodriguez's body was found "fully-clothed" and "face-down" in a 12th floor duct at 2 Rector Street, the office building where Rodriguez worked as a cleaning woman. And the Daily News has these grisly details: "Her head wrapped like a mummy in heavy-duty yellow and black construction tape, police sources said...[Her] hands and legs had also been bound with tape before she was shoved into an eye-level air-conditioning duct." more ›

This morning, during a third search of 2 Rector Street, police found a body stuffed into a 12th floor air conditioning vent, and the body has been identified as that of Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who was last seen there during her Tuesday night shift. While surveillance cameras show her entering and on certain floors, there was no sign of her leaving the building. The Post reports, "Rodriguez left her to clean the bathroom on fifth floor as usual when she received odd instructions from an unknown person telling her to work on the eighth floor instead. [She] called [a co-worker] to tell her of the change in plans and was not heard from again." The co-worker was later worried and "She and a supervisor found the Inwood resident's cart in the ladies' room, and her mop and hair clip strewn about in a room housing air conditioning units." No arrests have been made, but the police did question the building's freight elevator operation, Joseph Pabon, who has a "lengthy list of prior arrests including one for a violent attack on his girlfriend's car with a bowling ball" and who "inexplicably left work early on Tuesday night." Police had been searching a Pennsylvania landfill for her remains yesterday. more ›

Police are still searching for Eridania Rodriguez, who was last seen at a Financial District office building on Tuesday night, but they have also brought the search to a Pennsylvania landfill. According to the Daily News, Rodriguez was part of 2 Rector Street's cleaning crew and her cleaning cart was left abandoned on the 8th floor. Newsday reports that detectives are sifting the landfill where garbage from 2 Rector Street was taken: "Among those questioned about her disappearance are a DOT worker who had worked in the same building and appeared to be following her and a freight elevator operator with an arrest record, police sources said." Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "We have reason to fear the worst. That's the theory that we are operating on, that something untoward happened to Mrs. Rodriguez inside the building." The police, who are also searching the building for a third time, are asking for the public's help: Call 1-800-577-TIPS or send a text message to "CRIMES," (274637), then enter "TIP577". more ›

A woman, last seen at a lower Manhattan office building on Tuesday night, is presumed to be dead, according to WCBS 2, which says the police are treating Eridania Rodriguez's disappearance as a homicide. A Gothamist reader mentioned on Contribute, "My building (2 Rector st) was completely shut down [Wednesday] with everyone evacuated. The story we got is that a cleaning woman didn't sign out last night and they had to shut it down to search for her. The family was apparently there this morning looking for her." A lawyer for Rodriguez's family says that the building's surveillance cameras caught her working, but did not capture her leaving the building. Also: "Relatives tell CBS 2 that the married mother of three, who was also a grandmother, didn't feel safe on the job and that a man who worked inside the building was scaring her. She had recently told her bosses she was going to leave her job because she feared for her safety." more ›