By Gus Saltonstall
A man was sentenced Thursday for a shocking double murder three decades ago that claimed the lives of a Morningside Heights woman and her special-needs daughter, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday.
Larry Atkinson, 67, was sentenced to 40 years-to-life for strangling 57-year-old Sarah Roberts and her 26-year-old daughter Sharon in 1994 within the NYCHA Grant Houses at 550 West 125th Street in Morningside Heights, the DA said in its news release about the case.
In 2022, additional DNA testing was performed that led to Atkinson’s arrest in January 2023. He was convicted by the New York State Supreme Court in October of 2025 on two counts of murder in the second degree.
“We are resolute in our commitment to solving homicides and providing justice to victims and their families, no matter how long it takes,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in the release. “Thirty years after strangling Sarah Roberts and her daughter Sharon, Larry Atkinson stands convicted by a jury of two counts of murder and will serve decades in prison. Thanks to the skill of our prosecutors and the dogged work of our partners at OCME and the NYPD, there is finally closure for this horrific crime.”
On the night of February 20, 1994, a home health aide who took care of the daughter, and whom Atkinson was dating, discovered both women dead within the Morningside Heights apartment. Roberts’ daughter Sharon had been strangled with her mother’s oxygen tank tubing, according to the Manhattan DA’s Office.
The case went unsolved for decades, but in 2022, using technology unavailable at the time of the killings, the New York City Office of the Medical Examiner conducted additional testing on samples collected in 1994 and developed a DNA profile that matched Atkinson, the DA’s office said.
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The OCME — the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
I wonder about the motive.
Just asking. Wouldn’t that address be considered Harlem, not Washington Heights?
Back then it was probably Harlem.
Most assuredly not Washington Heights.
The article says Morningside Heights not Washington Hts.
My bad, thank you. However, I’m still not sure that Heights qualifies, either! West 125th seems like Harlem to me…even if it abuts the north end of Morningside Park. Regardless of the neighborhood, I’m glad justice is finally being served.
This is technically Manhattanville. Morningside Heights northern border ends on the south side of W125th Street. The north side starts Manhattanville.
Morningside Heights is bounded by Morningside Drive (and a few blocks on Amsterdam Ave. above 122nd Street), to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. It’s confusing because 125th Street turns northwest at Morningside Ave. (not to be confused with Morningside Drive), and where 125th Street intersects with Broadway, 129th Street is one block north.
The Wheels of Justice can sometimes grind slowly, but at least they grind. Well, except in the face of presidential immunity….
Those wheels spin on ice.
Indeed, on thin ice.
It’s still Harlem [west].
Real Estate types like to call the area (not the NYCH projects) Hamilton Heights, which I guess would be up the hill to the north on Broadway.
Harlem is quite big and more diverse than many mindsets allow. On the East Side, Harlem even extends south of 110th Street to 96th Street to the east of Madison.
Manhattanville has been the name of the community around the west end of 125th St since the mid-19th century. It was home to breweries and factories and the people who worked in them well into the 20th century. The name lives on in NYCHA’s Manhattanville Houses and Columbia’s new Manhattanville Campus. Manhattanville College, now in Westchester County, originated in the area.
Speaking of Washington Heights, then there are Hudson Heights (not to be confused with Hamilton Heights) and the Little Dominican Republic (“the Heights”, as in the movie), the precise boundaries of which no one can agree on and which may or may not overlap each other; thanks, real-estate folks! (To be fair, many neighborhoods — in and outside NYC — share this problem. Perhaps someday it can all be reconciled by royal proclamation.)
And include the Donald J. Trump Central Park.
Which, despite being paved over, will no doubt remain one of the great attractions of New Trumpsville.
Morningside, Manhattanville need many more cops, cameras, and patrol.
Harlem, Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, who cares? It’s all a sketchy Siberia once you go north of 86th.