Migrant admits he strangled woman on her 21st birthday in upstate NY Airbnb, dumped body in woods in disturbing confession
An illegal immigrant admitted that he strangled a 21-year-old woman to death inside an upstate Airbnb on her birthday — and carried her body past a police cruiser before burying her in the woods.
Jhon Moises Chacaguasay-Ilbis, a 21-year-old Ecuadorean national, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in a Syracuse courtroom Tuesday in the cold-blooded June 18 slaying of Joselyn Jhoana Toaquiza, who was killed as she celebrated her birthday, prosecutors said Thursday.
Chilling surveillance video captured the killer and his victim walking into the Syracuse Airbnb home, and walking out later with Toaquiza’s body slung over his shoulder — as the cruiser drove by.
Syracuse police later confirmed it was one of their vehicles but refused to comment further.
Cops said Chacaguasay-Ilbis took the victim’s body to nearby Lincoln Park, where he buried her in a shallow grave before leaving the scene.
Toaquiza, who is also from Ecuador, knew her killer since childhood, authorities said.
Chacaguasay-Ilbis turned himself in to police days later and was charged in the murder.
According to Homeland Security sources, the killer migrant crossed the US border illegally in El Paso in January 2023, but was released because there was no space to hold him.
Toaquiza, who attended elementary school with Chacaguasay-Ilbis in Ecuador, crossed into the US illegally a few months later, on June 19, 2023, in Lukeville, Arizona, the sources said.
She told border agents she was fleeing an abusive lover in her native country, but it is unclear if her eventual killer is that person, the sources said.
She was given a date for an asylum court hearing but was killed before that date.
Police said Chacaguasay used a ligature to strangle the victim to death.
In court this week, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and concealing a corpse charges, and is due to be sentenced to 22 years to life — three below the maximum sentence — on Feb. 14.
