http://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2015/06/02/yonkers-victim-serial-killer/28353213/Crime Scene: No ID for serial killer's '92 victim
Jane Lerner , jlerner@lohud.comPublished 11:56 a.m. ET June 2, 2015
A convicted serial killer confessed to killing a woman and dumping her body in the trash behind a Yonkers pizza restaurant, but even now, 23 years later, police do not know her identity
Most unsolved murders involve a victim and an unknown killer, but this Yonkers cold case involves an unknown victim and a confessed killer.
The dismembered parts of a woman who has never been identified were found in a trash bin behind a pizzeria on Midland Ave. in 1992.
It would take years before investigators linked the body to Robert Shulman, a Long Island postal worker who was arrested in 1996 and convicted of being a serial killer.
Shulman admitted picking up prostitutes in New York City, taking them to his Long Island apartment for sex and drugs, then beating them to death and cutting up their bodies.
He was convicted of killing three prostitutes in Suffolk County in 1994 and 1995.
Shulman also admitted to killing two women and dumping them in Yonkers in 1991 and 1992 at the beginning of his killing spree.
The first Westchester victim was identified as Lori Vasquez, 24, of Brooklyn, whose remains were found Aug. 31, 1991, stuffed into a plastic trash can near a house at 6 Belknap Ave.
The second woman was found June 27, 1992, in a plastic can placed in a trash bin behind the I Luv New York Pizza parlor at 1288 Midland Ave.
Even now, nearly 23 years later, investigators have no idea who she is.
"There could be a family out there looking for her, waiting for her to come home," said Yonkers police Detective John Geiss. "We would love to identify her."
The investigation
The woman's arms and part of one leg were severed and never located — making it impossible for investigators to check her fingerprints.
Police think the woman was white or possibly Hispanic, in her late 20s or early 30s. She had dark hair.
She had a tattoo of a green butterfly on her right rear shoulder.
Shulman was found guilty of killing three women in Suffolk and was sentenced to death in 1999.
A year later, he went on trial in Westchester in the two Yonkers cases, including the unidentified woman. Then-Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said her office pursued the local cases, which were too old to qualify for capital punishment, in part because Shulman was appealing his Long Island convictions.
On the second day of his trial in Westchester, Shulman admitted to killing the two women whose bodies were dumped in Yonkers.
He made the admission to spare his younger brother, Barry Shulman, additional punishment for helping dump Vasquez's body.
Barry Shulman was given a two-year sentence for pleading guilty in Suffolk to helping his brother dump the bodies of two victims. When his brother pleaded guilty in Westchester, Barry Shulman pleaded guilty to the disposal of Vasquez's body in Yonkers. He was given a two-year prison term to run at the same time as the Long Island sentence.
Westchester prosecutors said a pre-sentence report on Robert Shulman showed he had no remorse for his crimes.
A Westchester State Supreme Court justice told Shulman his prison sentence of 25 years to life "means that you won't be able to walk on the streets again.
"You have caused irreparable damage to numerous families and numerous individuals," the judge said. "You have served as judge, jury and executioner. "
Shulman's death penalty sentence for the Long Island homicides was later changed to life in prison without parole when New York's death penalty was overturned in 2004.
He died in prison of natural causes in April 2006 — 10 years after his arrest and nearly 14 years after the body of a woman still known as Jane Doe was found in the trash behind a Yonkers restaurant.
Whom to call
Yonkers police ask anyone who thinks they might know the identity of serial killer Robert Shulman's victim who was found in Yonkers to contact them at 914-377-7900.