Cold case: Lissette Torres, a 19-year-old law firm worker from Brooklyn, was brutally murdered on New Year's Eve in 1987
Edwin Alcaide, 53, was arrested after the NYPD Cold Case Squad matched his DNA to tissue samples they recovered from under the fingernails of victim Lisette Torres.
Alcaide, who lives in Manhattan’s East Village, has a long string of convictions and a violent past - including charges of drug dealing, rape, robbery, and attempted murder.
On New Year’s Eve a quarter of a century ago Miss Torres, a resident of Sunset Park in Brooklyn, was fighting for her life.
Earlier that night, she had called her mother, saying she was on her way to her family’s annual New Year’s Eve celebrations.
But Miss Torres never made it to the party.
She lost the struggle with her attacker, and was found stabbed to death in an auto lot under the Gowanus Expressway on New Year’s Day, still wearing her white coat and boots.
Her best friend, Lizzette Sierra, who saw her body in the morgue later called it ‘pretty bad,’ telling the New York Times in 2010: ‘It seemed like her upper torso, face and hands were cut up. I know she struggled. She was not intimidated easily.’
The New York Post wrote in 2010 that Miss Torres was a recent graduate of Our Lady of Perpetual Help High School, and worked at a law firm.
Friends described her as happy and bright, and said she was planning to attend college.
Police resumed their investigation two years ago, and pressure was on to find her killer.
NYPD officers began posting flyers with the image of the dark-haired woman with striking features, hoping that someone would be able to provide insight into her brutal murder.
In 1987, the borough – like the rest of New York – was racked with violent crime.
According to the Times, Ms Torres was one of at least ten people killed on January 1, 1987. More than 2,000 homicides were recorded in the city that year alone.
In 2011, there were 490 recorded homicides in New York; the year before, there were 519.
According to ABC7, Alcaide’s multiple convictions were enough to put him behind bars several times, but it was a 1998 charge of first degree sexual abuse that led police to take a sample of his DNA.
The network said that he sexually abused an eight-year-old child while he was babysitting.
Miss Torres’ family has spent the past 25 years on tenterhooks, waiting for any indicator that authorities were a step closer to finding their daughter’s killer.
Inside the family’s home, Lissette's graduation picture hangs prominently. Mr Torres, who retired in 2010 from his maintenance job at Long Island College Hospital, said it had remained untouched.
‘It’s always there; it’s never been moved,’ he said, adding that the family only began decorating their home for Christmas in 2008.
He told the Times that he, along with his wife Rosa, travel to Staten Island every New Year’s Eve to place flowers on their daughter’s grave. They also visit her every month.
Alcaide, who was charged with second-degree murder, is now waiting to be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
A source told the Post that he was an acquaintance of Miss Torres, though it is not clear what the motivation for murder could have been.
Rose and Jose Torres said Thursday that news of the arrest was the miracle for which they had been waiting a quarter of a century.
Rosa told CBS New York: ‘I’m happy now. I waiting 25 year for this moments, you know [sic].’
They plan to be at his arraignment today, they told the news station.
Alcaide, who was charged with second-degree murder, is now waiting to be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
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