Police have put up fresh posters spreading the word about a $2,500 reward for information about the homicide of Tessa Majors, a Barnard freshman who was killed on Dec. 11 in Morningside Park near 116th Street. Police first offered the reward immediately after the incident, and put posters up on Broadway, our tipster wrote. But the new posters were put up near Morningside Park. The ones in the photos above and below are from 110th Street at the corner of the park.
Police arrested a 13-year-old boy two days after the killing and charged him with felony murder, which means they don’t think he was the one who stabbed Majors. They also reportedly believe two other minors were involved, one of whom stabbed her. But though they questioned one of the boys, they didn’t arrest him. The Times reported before the New Year that the police are hoping DNA evidence helps them close the case.
I really don’t understand this. One of the kids said he and his two pals robbed the girl, and one stabbed her. What is the purpose of this poster? Witnesses to the trio mugging her? The girl is dead. Maybe the police should bring in outside help, from the start this looks like this is going nowhere and charges won’t even be filed.
We can always count on UWSHebrew to say something insensitive/mean/nasty, etc.
yes, it’s very insensitive/mean/nasty to want justice for the person(s) who killed a girl for no reason.
“Justice” means convicting the people who actually did it, the opposite of what was done in the Central Park 5 case. And please don’t tell me they were guilty of OTHER crimes that night, those charges were expunged as well.
You and others continued obfuscation of this crime by repeatedly stating “Central Park 5” fools no one.
You seem convinced there is enough evidence for a guilty verdict. Maybe you should proseute the case. I really doubt the police and DA’s office are sitting on this one.
Miserable ‘reward’ for the loss of an innocent 18 year old. If the killing was caught on cctv, why can’t the cops find and arrest the culprits?
This was the worst event on Morningside Heights in over 50 years!!!
After the case of the Central Park 5, the police are walking on eggs when it comes to indicting young black men in cases of murder.
They have the 13 years old who confessed. They have the 2 other !4 years old. Most likely one of them was involved and possibly is the stabber.
But – PC dictates that the police are castrated of their power, and we may never find who did the stabbing and who did not.
Thank you New York state and city for being so PC that the murderers will get away with murder.
Do you know that there is enough evidence to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt? That’s what this is about -or at least should be.
No, I don’t know this, however, the police are hand cuffed by the PC patrol, and you damn know it to be the truth.
And, until we rid ourselves of this curse, and become free of the PC that rules us, we will never know who the killer is, and all we do know is that a young and promising 18 years old woman is dead, and some where, most likely in the city, the killer is free to continue his life.
i guess ZoomZ feels that the drafters of the US Constitution were guilty of “political correctness.”
Wow. Really? You think that looking for more evidence, and trying to avoid punishing the wrong people is all due to being politically correct? God forbid anyone do their due diligence!
If it was YOU being charged with a crime, you would want the police out there, investigating.
Oh, and you wouldn’t be claiming that it was “politically correct” to do so. But that’s probably because you’re white.
Your comments do nothing more than show your racism.
I’m astounded by some of the comments here. My nephew is a young teen and he certainly wouldn’t ‘go along’ with the police and say that he and his friends had robbed/stabbed someone the night before, and then embellish the story if it wasn’t true. We’re not talking about a 3 year old here! It was a Thursday. Was he in school that day? There was another story posted by the WSR without a comments option that stated: “Teenager Taken to the Hospital After Violent Mugging on Subway Stairs
Posted on January 14, 2020 at 12:41 pm by West Sider.” This happened at 3:30 in the afternoon! I’m just shocked by all of this and will never understand how ‘kids’ are committing violent crimes, and seemingly without any fear of repercussions. 🙁
shocker! INAYA calls a post racist!
Despite their best efforts, NYPD can’t seem to find eye witnesses (quiet spot in the park) or people from the community who are willing to provide additional evidence. The kid who was arrested and tested for DNA but then released is still a prime suspect who in most sane societies and cities would be behind bars until all the facts are known. But this is NYC so he gets to walk freely, enjoy life, cover his tracks and destroy evidence, and coordinate stories with his fellow muggers/ killers from the park. Why? Because all cops are racist, Central Park Five, etc. Tessa Majors’ life was stolen from her … but our police can’t hold a suspect for a few days while they try to solve a brutal murder. Insanity.
Not sure about you but i am glad i live in a state where they cannot hold you in jail till they find evidence of your guilt. LOL. I hope they catch the guys that did this and put them away for a long time but that still does not mean I want an authoritarian state like in China.
In China, unfortunately there will be 3 cameras targeting at you to make sure no suspect can escape in this case!
Police can’t hold people without evidence for more than 48 hours. It has nothing to do with racism. They don’t have evidence right now.
They can and they have.
Police can hold a suspect without charging them for up to 72 hours. Otherwise, they have to be released.
https://rhodeslegalgroup.com/criminal-law/jail-charges-release-72-hour-rule/
Neal,
I don’t know the boundaries of Morningside Heights, but one of the reasons this death affects me so much is that it reminds me of the murder of Caroline Isenberg, on December 2, 1984, on the roof of 929 West End Avenue, at 106th street.
And comments on this article remind me of things people were saying about the Central Park five, at that time.
How is it possible that a bunch of teenagers—young teenagers, especially—were deft enough to have left behind no evidence? I do not want a repeat of the Central Park Five, but I find this hard to believe. The police need OUR help because those kids were so cunning? Really? Doesn’t add up.
You’ll be surprised how easy it can be to get away with murder. Whenever I watch or read about crime, I’m often surprised at the mistakes that criminals make that cause them to get caught. Police work is very dependant upon favorable circumstances. If there’s a wealth of forensic and circumstantial evidence, then they have an easy case, but if there’s not much to work with, then they have a very tough case.
This case is surprising because we would expect a crime like this to be easily solved. The murder occurred in the evening, there was another person in the park beside the assailants and the victim, there was security, and there were cameras. Not to forget that the suspects are teenagers.
The problem for the police is that no witness saw the attack occur. The cameras didn’t capture the crime. These teens had between the time the crime was committed and the police apprehended them to get rid of the evidence, such as the knife, their bloody clothes. The charged thirteen years old apparently still had on the clothes that he was wearing when Tessa was attacked, but he wasn’t the one who assaulted her, so her DNA wouldn’t be on him. The fourteen-year-old who ran away hid for two weeks, enough time to dispose of the murder weapon and DNA evidence that might have been found on his clothing or body. Apparently Tessa bit him and his family was shielding him until the wound healed. The other fourteen-year-old was questioned but the police didn’t have anything on him.
Teens can be very cunning. Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer, stabbed an eighteen-year-old when he was a teenager. Ted Bundy is believed to have committed his first murder at age fifteen.
Nothing about this case adds up.
Why such a measly reward?
Why are characters in the media speculating about another “Central Park Five” before anyone is even charged?
Didn’t I hear on the news that the parents of the 14 year old suspect were driving him to the police station and he jumped out of the car? Did they ever find him again? Why haven’t they questioned the 3rd boy? I don’t know what the purpose of the poster is, but $2500 is sad and insulting. 🙁
They found him and he was swabbed for dna, interviewed and releasesd.
Thank you for the update.
You’re welcome.
Typo released
Taking a long time for those dna results. That’s not good.
On December 26, They said that they swabbed the fourteen-year-old and that the DNA should be available in six-seven days. Now it’s been almost three weeks and no DNA results. Somehow I doubt that DNA will help the police. I hope I’m proven wrong and the DNA does lead to an arrest. The problem for the police is that the stabbing suspect was on the lam for two weeks and had ample time to get rid of any potential DNA. Tessa supposedly bit the stabber and the police were hoping that he would have a bite mark on his hand that would contain her DNA, but the mark apparently healed before they apprehended him. The only hope for the police now is that the stabber’s DNA would be found on Tessa body and clothing. If Tessa bit her attacker, it is possible that she got his DNA on her teeth or lips. But if she was bleeding and coughed out blood, that DNA could have been compromised by hers.
I read somewhere that a suspect cannot be charged solely on the basis of being identified by another suspect? I am not sure if this applies only to minors. Maybe a lawyer can clarify.
This is true. According to NY state law, a suspect can’t be tried just on the basis of another’s suspect’s confession.
Why are the police offering an award when they have DNA ?
Right.. Where are the results???? It’s been a month and no results. Why would you let a suspect go if he was being hidden by his family for two weeks.. Something is fishy about this case.
The only real suspect is the 13 year old. He was found days later, a mile away in an apartment building hallway. The cop who found him said one of the perpetrators being looked for was wearing a green shirt and red sneakers and so was the boy in the apartment building. This seemed to be a remarkable piece of good luck. He was arrested for trespassing and confessed to being present at the stabbing. He named 2 other boys as being present at and/or committing the murder. Both boys were found, questioned, DNA tested and released. I am not exactly a bleeding heart, but did the boy just tell the cops what they wanted to hear?
That’s false information, the boy was wearing his school uniform and those aren’t his school colors.
The 13 year old is the only one charged, but he is not the only suspect. The police believe that the other boys took part but as of right now, they don’t have any evidence besides the 13 yrs old’s testimony. They believe that the 14-year-old who went on the lam was the one that stabbed her and that he was in hiding until a bite mark healed. The fact that they are posting an award for information makes me doubt that DNA is going to lead to a successful outcome
Tessa Majors was murdered on December 11th, which was a Wednesday, and the suspect was found on Thursday, the 12th, which was the next day. It’s not unusual for a 13 year old boy to be wearing the same clothing the next day, especially if he hasn’t gone home.
“The 13-year-old was observed by police Thursday in the lobby of a building near the Manhattan neighborhood where the stabbing occurred one day earlier, according to the source. He was wearing clothes matching the description given for the suspect in the Barnard student’s killing. He was picked up on suspicion of criminal trespass.”
False.. The boy had on the his school uniform. The school has a dress code so he would be wearing the same color. Why are the Dna report hasn’t been released. They held a news conference saying they took dna and the results would be back soon. Nobody has said anything about the results. I find that strange, it makes you question, what’s really going on.
Yeah, and the “description” he “matched” probably describes a lot of African-American youths.
Those descriptions are usually very vague. Basically, if you’re the same ethnicity and gender, you’ll fit the description.
Prayer & patient
The police & detectives are doing excellent job.
All evidences will be in April 2020
Kids, who did the killing, will need mental health if found guilty by DNA & other evidences-in prison fo5 to 15 years.
Tess majors’ parents & everyone will need mental health support.
God is the final judge of the 3 kids
Spiritual healing for all.
How do you know when DNA will be available?.. It doesn’t take that long. The police are doing a horrible job. Why hold the 13 year old, and you let the others go!!!! Oh because you want to make a example/statement!! Well bring the Dna results and show us what’s ready going on!!! Now all you hear is crickets, but when the 13 year old goes back to court the media will be all over him.. Where are these other kids?.. Oh, they’re out enjoying life, when they took a life.. Sad on the DA’s part and NYPD!!!
Big shot! Tt wasn’t YOUR 18 year old daughter who was murdered! “God is the final judge of the 3 kids”? Who do you think you are?! HOW DARE YOU!
I love everything you said in all your posts — thank you for saying the truth. I am heartbroken by this case. It is not racist to want the murderers of an 18 year old girl brought to justice — if the police were not walking on eggshells when it comes to crimes committed by a gang of teenagers, this case would have been easily solved. And they should arrest the parents of the 14 year old for hiding him.
Columbia University should offer a reward to supplement that meager reward police are offering.
$2500 is an insult to the murdered girl and her family. Not likely to motivate anyone with info to step up. Citizen app has reported gunpoint and knifepoint robberies and assaults around Mrngsd Park almost daily before and since the murder. I’ve lived 1 block from the park for 15 yrs and things seem to be getting worse in recent yrs. Also- I’ve passed the spot where the Columbia guardhouse is thousands of times at various hours and have only seen a guard there 2 or 3 times. I always felt like it was only a matter of time before something horrible happened while that guardhouse stood empty.
thisis the sad legacy of the central park five. this case would have been solved if the police were not too intimidated to pick up the alleged stabber with the bite mark as soon as he was identified by the 13 year old. Then they might have even got a confession. But they hesitated and waited for the boy to be brought in and got played by the experts.
Let’s just hope this meager reward means they have the hard evidence they need and are just looking for extra information to solidify the case.
The NYPD could easily afford to spend more of its $5.58 billion budget for information to solve this case. And, Columbia University with its $10.95 billion dollar endowment, should be able to contribute as well.