A third and final suspect has been arrested in connection with the homicides of two men who were drugged, robbed and killed in separate incidents following visits to New York City gay bars last year, officials tell NBCNews.
Umberger and Ramirez were both found dead after visiting gay bars in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood last year. Both had left the bars with at least one unknown person before their bank accounts were drained of thousands of dollars using facial recognition access on their phones, according to their family members.caused by a “drug-facilitated theft.” Multiple drugs were found in their systems, including fentanyl, lidocaine and cocaine.
John Umberger and Julio Ramirez were drugged and killed in separate incidents following visits to New York City gay bars.Police obtained security video showing Hamilton and Demaio entering and leaving Umberger’s temporary residence in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, two senior law enforcement officialsThrough a search warrant, police also recovered two videos from Demaio’s phone that showed Demaio and Hamilton at the site of Umberger’s death, the two officials said.
An indictment naming Hoskins, Demaio, Butts, Barroso and a fifth unidentified co-conspirator outlined a pattern where victims were “incapacitated to the extent that their ability to perceive events became diminished,” so that the suspects could then steal their victims’ cell phones and credit cards. The men would then use the physical cards and information stored on the victims’ phones to transfer money to themselves and make purchases, the indictment says.
One separate group is suspected of committing similar crimes on 26 victims, two law enforcement officials told NBC News last month. One of the subsequent group’s victims was fashion designer Kathryn Marie Gallagher whose death in July was ruled a drug-facilitated homicide by the medical examiner’s office, the officials said.that it is investigating “several additional deaths in similar circumstances” to those of Ramirez and Umberger.
A spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office said they “could not comment further due to the ongoing criminal investigations.”
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