Dick Wolf’s newest Netflix docuseries Homicide: New York takes viewers into one of the city’s grizzliest murders in Central Park — but where are killers Daphne Abdela and Christopher Vasquez now?
The Law & Order creator takes on true crime, but this time some of New York’s most horrifying and unsettling real cases. The Netflix true crime series takes cases spanning decades. Cases investigated through the lens of the very detectives who solved them.
Episode 2, “Central Park Slaying,” focuses on the 1997 murder of real estate agent Michael McMorrow. Found dead and mutilated in one of the iconic park’s lakes, no one ever suspected who killed him would be a teenager and her boyfriend.
Daphne Abdela and Christopher Vasquez were both 15 years old at the time when police arrested them for one of the most overkill murders they had ever seen. Where have they been since the murder?
Where are Daphne Abdela and Christopher Vasquez after the murder?
Both Daphne Abdela and Christopher Vasquez are free and living their lives under the radar. They were released in 2004, with Abdela going back to prison to serve a full term after violating her parole. She’s speculated to now be free once again.
Also known as the “Baby-Face killers,” the two teenagers committed one of the most gut-wrenching crimes New York detectives have ever seen. Per the docuseries, Abdela grew up with a life of privilege and believing she was superior to others. On May 23, 1997, Abdela calls the police to report a body in the lake. Police soon rush to the scene to find a trail of blood and a mutilated body in a Central Park lake.
Michael McMorrow was found murdered, hands hacked off, stabbed, and his abdomen cut open. Police called it an “overkill.” After a thorough investigation, police discover Abdela and her new boyfriend Vasquez are the killers.
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The two suspects at first try to paint the well-respected and loved family man as a pervert. In reality, he was a man who was in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” He had been in the park drinking with a group of people when Abdela and Vasquez decided to break away and go skinny dipping.
Per Abdela’s testimony, McMarrow put his arm around her to warm her up. It sent Vasquez into a fit of rage. It led to the gruesome murder. But even investigators couldn’t prove what really happened. During the trial, both killers were found guilty of murder, but not manslaughter.
Because of the manslaughter charge, both teens were given six years in prison. They were released in 2004 with Former Assistant District Attorney Richard Planksy saying he has no idea if Vasquez ever reoffended after the murder. Abdela on the other hand reoffended and was sent back to prison for assaulting someone at a halfway house.
According to the New York Post, the last anyone knows of her is in 2009 when she filed a lawsuit for injuries in a supposed car incident.
Homicide: New York is available to stream on Netflix, with plenty more true crime documentaries coming to streaming platforms.