Missing N.J. teen abducted & killed

NY Daily News ^ | NICOLE BODE, JESS WISLOSKI, ALISON GENDAR and ROBERT F. MOORE

[Marius3188]

She sneaked into Manhattan for a night of partying with her girlfriend. But it ended in tragedy when Jennifer Moore was snatched from the street, driven to a cheap New Jersey hotel, beaten, strangled and then dumped in a trash bin.

The 18-year-old's body was discovered about 4:30 a.m. yesterday, two days after she got lost walking along 12th Ave. on the West Side, wearing a black halter top and white miniskirt.

Chunks of her long, brown hair had been ripped out of her head and her body horribly bruised.

As ex-con Draymond Coleman, 34, and his prostitute girlfriend were being held in the savage slaying, Moore's heartbroken father tearfully told how he was struggling to deal with every parent's worst nightmare.

"I think you all know by now we've learned the worst possible news," Hugh Moore, 58, said outside the family's Harrington Park, N.J., home. "Jennifer's been taken from us.

"No one should have to lose a child. You can imagine, it's devastating. All the friends, everyone feels they could have done something that could have made a difference.

"It sounds like somebody got a hold of her very quickly and she never had a chance." Investigators believe Jennifer Moore was sexually assaulted in a drab room on the third floor of the Park Ave. Hotel in Weehawken, before Coleman strangled and beat her as his lover watched, sources said.

Coleman - a drifter and small-time pimp with 16 prior arrests for assault, robbery and drug crimes - had rented the room for a month, paying about $250 a week. His lover was almost always with him.

"They looked like nice people," a hotel clerk said yesterday as cops swarmed the building.

Moore's body was found at 4:30 a.m. yesterday in a trash bin about two blocks away. Her corpse was likely carried out of the hotel in a suitcase, a source said.

Less than 48 hours had passed since the spirited prep school graduate and her 18-year-old pal, Talia Kenan, had cruised into Manhattan in Kenan's mother's car. The girls went straight to the trendy Chelsea club Guest House on W. 27th St.

All patrons are required to show identification before entering the club, but at least one of the teens knew the deejay - a connection that a law enforcement source said may have allowed the underage duo to get inside.

The teens drank heavily until 2:30 a.m., police said, when they walked back to where they had parked the car and discovered it had been towed. About an hour later they took a cab to the NYPD impound lot at Pier 76.

Clearly drunk, Kenan cursed loudly after an impound clerk told her she couldn't have the car back until she sobered up. Kenan continued to argue with the clerk and then collapsed shortly after 4 a.m. After employees called an ambulance, Moore wandered off.

Kenan was taken at 4:18 a.m. to St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, where doctors treated her for alcohol poisoning.

Lost on the far West Side, Moore used her cell phone at 5:08 a.m. to call her boyfriend, Kofi Boakye, in New Jersey. She told him she thought she was being followed, police said. Boakye, 18, told her to take a cab to the hospital.

But two minutes later, Coleman had Moore's cell phone and she was never heard from again. Cops believe Coleman lured Moore into a cab by telling her he was going to New Jersey.

Investigators say the violent ex-con used Moore's phone at 5:10 a.m. to call his mother, Griselda Wright, and a former girlfriend.

Security cameras videotaped Coleman propping up Moore as they walked into the Weehawken hotel about 10 minutes later, sources said.

Cops arrested Coleman and his girlfriend early yesterday at a hotel at W. 145th St. and Broadway after questioning the ex-con's mother and a former lover, a police source said.

Coleman - who was last released from prison in January 2005 - was charged with murder in New Jersey. His unidentified girlfriend is expected to be charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.

Sources said Coleman had scraped under Moore's nails to remove any skin she might have scratched off him during a struggle. The crude cleaning bloodied her fingertips. Coleman also tried to swab portions of Moore's body with alcohol wipes to remove DNA evidence, sources said.

Moore's loved ones said she was the youngest of three siblings and aspired to be a nurse.

"I just break down in tears and I try to be strong for my wife and everybody else. And then I break down again," her devastated dad said, adding he had never seen her drunk. "Kids think they're grown up and try to do grown-up things. Hopefully, none of them will have to pay the price that Jen did."

The final moments of Jennifer Moore's life:

Tuesday, 2:30 a.m.: Moore and her pal, Talia Kenan, leave the Guest House club at 542 W. 27th St.

2:40 a.m.: The girls realize Kenan's car was towed from an illegal parking spot.

3:45 a.m.: They enter the NYPD tow pound on 12th Ave. near W. 38th St. Kenan passes out and Moore wanders away.

5:08 a.m.: Moore calls her boyfriend on her cell phone and says she is scared, lost and that a man is following her.

5:10 a.m.: Suspect Draymond Coleman allegedly uses Moore's cell phone to call his mom and a former girlfriend.

5:20 a.m.: Coleman allegedly walks Moore into the Park Avenue Hotel in Weehawken, N.J.

5:38 a.m.: Moore's cell phone is shut off. She is assaulted and strangled in the hotel.

Wednesday, 11 a.m.: Coleman and a girlfriend check out of the Park Avenue Hotel. NYPD uses cell phone records to track down Coleman's mom. Cops determine he sleeps in flophouses on the upper West Side.

Yesterday, 2:30 a.m.: Cops arrest Coleman at a hotel on W. 145th St.

4:30 a.m.: Moore's beaten body is found in a trash bin near the hotel.

[BadAndy]

"Modern women must learn that they are the weaker and vulnerable gender when it comes down to brass tacks."

Don't you know that a 5' 100# girl can easily beat the cr@p out of a 6' 200# male? I see it all the time on TV shows. Too bad females believe that stuff. A drunk young girl in a halter top and miniskirt lost in a bad section of NYC at 4 AM. It's like feeding time at the zoo.

[Dante3]

What a horrible, sad story. Such a cute girl.

[finnman69]

GET DROP DEAD DRUNK

GET RAPED

GET DEAD

It needs to be repeated over and over, they should show slideshows like this at highschools

[massgopguy]

But, but Michelle McPhee of the Boston Herald says that it's perfectly safe to walk the streets of the Rotten Apple at all hours. This could have easily have happened to Michael Strahan at noon. YA!

[seasoned traditionalist]

"Coleman - a drifter and small-time pimp with 16 prior arrests for assault, robbery and drug crimes

SIXTEEN ARRESTS? For serious crimes? Only 34 years old?

What was this POS, recidivist, doing walking the streets, a free person (no doubt on probation or parole) in the first place.

His Highness the mayor, BLOOMING-IDIOT, can certainly protect all of its citizens from "second hand smoke," but can he protect them from criminals of this nature?

What say you, Mr. Bleeding Heart, Liberal, RINO, A*hole, Mayor?

He and his sl*t girl friend should BOTH fry.

As an aside, can't wait for O'Reilly to get ahold of this and "out" all of the lib judges who let this dangerous felon walk time and again.

[MikeA]

Wow, even liberal California where I'm from has a 3 strikes law. I don't blame you from wanting to move from that liberal hell hole. I want to move from mine!

[wideawake]

Moore used her cell phone at 5:08 a.m. to call her boyfriend, Kofi Boakye, in New Jersey.

Interesting. She was dating an Akan Muslim who is apparently a first generation Ghanaian-American.

Not your typical NJ suburban teenager.

[Gay State Conservative]

Does NJ have the death penalty? If so,do they use it?

[Rocky]

16 arrests. It doesn't say how many convictions. If just 8 of them resulted in a 5-year sentence each, this guy would have been in jail for 40 years. The judicial system is way too lenient in some states on offenders with multiple convictions.

[wideawake]

In fact, it wasn't even so much a "bad" neighborhood as a completely empty, abandoned area by the side of a highway.

Basically, she chose to put herself in this kind of danger rather than accompany her ill friend to the hospital and risk detection by her parents.

It's amazing what teens reflexively prioritize.

[finnman69]

The same NYC where within 2 weeks two separate lunatics went on a spree. one on a stabbing spree, one attacked a passenger on the Subway in broad daylight with a chainsaw.


Right after, I rode in an elevator w/ a bike messeger who saw my NY Post with the headline of the stabbing spree. He said, "man, there are f***ing crazy people out there".

You never know.

[jdm]

Caused me some problems in my transition to the South since everyone here says, "Hi," and smiles at everyone.

LOL. I lived in Texas for two years and encountered the same thing. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming.

[deputac]

Tough to blame the mayor on this one, the NY legislature year after year refuses to pass laws to get these guys off the street. The uprorar going on right now over keeping predicate sex offenders locked up for good under civil confinement laws is keeping the ACLU and NYCLU busy causing trouble and filing briefs on behalf of this state's resident dirt bags.

[wideawake]

NJ has a death penalty.

No one has been executed in NJ since 1976.

There are only 13 people on death row in NJ.

[LurkedLongEnough]

UPDATE: A New York judge refused to waive extradiction to New Jersey Friday. A New Jersey judge signed an arrest warrant Thursday charging Coleman, 35, of New York City, with the slaying of a New Jersey teen. New York police officers had taken Coleman into custody at a dive hotel in Manhattan. (1010wins.com)

[poindexters brother]

Yeah, but the only reason we have a 3-strike law is because it was an initiative. The gutless liberal legislature would never do something like that - after all it limits their voter base.

Plus, everytime you turn around there is some do-gooder wringing their hands about how some poor unfortunate who didn't know any better fell afoul of the "awful" 3-strikes law.

Eternal vigilance is the price of democracy.

[ladyjane]

I just smiled and made eye contact with everyone.

Not a good idea at all.

[wideawake]

NYC always will have a large number of insane people on its streets - there are 8M people and a large number of mental hospitals are located in NYC.

The subway stabber and Mr. Chainsaw are hard to prevent - nutbags snap when they snap.

What we don't hear about much any more is the sane guy with a knife systematically robbing four or five people every other night on various subway lines.

That guy of guy used to be disturbingly common in NYC.

[Gay State Conservative]

NYC always will have a large number of insane people on its streets - there are 8M people and a large number of mental hospitals are located in NYC.

My nephew and I were in Times Square just last weekend.We spotted a guy crossing the street who was dressed from head to toe in green trash bags.

I couldn't for the life of me convince my nephew that the way the guy was dressed indicated that he had a very serious psychiatric problem.

[all4one]

Coleman has been in and out of prison since 1997, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Corrections said. He was sentenced in December 1997 to three to six years for attempted drug distribution, which he served until June 2002. He violated parole three times -- in September 2002, July 2003 and January 2005 -- and was sent back to prison.

His last parole violation occurred on Jan. 11, 2005, the spokeswoman said. Prison officials were forced to release him two weeks later when his original sentence was completed, she said.

In November 2001, Coleman was disciplined for violent conduct and assaulting an inmate, she said.

Hotel resident Antonio Hernandez said Coleman was on the prowl for group sex and regularly asked whether he knew any women who would join him and his girlfriend.

"He asked me if my lady was into that and interested, and I said 'No way.' He said he was going to go to New York to try to find a girl," Hernandez said. "He also wanted crack cocaine, but I said I didn't know about that stuff."

Hernandez said he last saw Coleman about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday lugging a large garbage bag over his shoulder. "He said, 'I'm getting out of here,' " Hernandez said.

Coleman, whom he described as tall -- about 6 feet 2 inches, muscular and dark-skinned -- then returned to pick up a large duffel bag and suitcase, Hernandez said.

"All the bags were very big," he said.

Hernandez also said he noticed this week that the Coleman's hands were bruised and swollen.

"He said he got into a fight with some kids in New York," he said. "He said he started it."

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Words Fail...

Thankfully my parents were over-the-top strict...even before cell phones...they knew where I was, who I was with...and coming home 1 minute after curfew was not an option. Having two older brothers didn't hurt either. Although I was constantly embarrased by being the only 18/19/20 year-old with a curfew...I am now a parent of two young boys...and I certainly understand why my parents did what they did. I am sure it wasn't easy for them to look at my surly sour-puss...all the while knowing that they were doing their jobs as parents. Prayers for this family.