Veronica Jones: 'Baby Hope' has a name, a suspect in her death, NYPD announces

Twenty-two years ago, in 1991, the body of a 4 year old girl was discovered in an ice chest off a New York highway. She had been suffocated and there was evidence of sexual molestation. Her body was badly decomposed (so much so that they created multiple sketches of her that all looked different) and no child in the area matching her description had been reported missing. The case quickly went cold. Two years later, at her funeral, they buried her in a donated plot and gave her the name "Baby Hope". In 2006, her body was exhumed; In 2011, a DNA profile had been created, but her identity still remained unknown.

Until last July when an anonymous tip was phoned in and the case suddenly held the potential of being solved. The anonymous tipper turned out to be the girl's sister, and through her help, they managed to take someone into custody. The man's name is Conrado Juarez, aged 52, and he is Baby Hope's cousin. He's admitted to killing and hiding the body.

 "Juarez, who was 30 at the time of the crime, said he went to an apartment in Queens shared by seven of his relatives and saw Baby Hope in the hallway, Kelly said. Juarez told police he smothered her with a pillow while raping her. When the girl went motionless, Juarez told police, he summoned his sister from another room. It was the sister who told Juarez to get rid of the body and who provided the cooler, Kelly said. He then "folded the girl in half," tied her, placed her in a garbage bag inside the cooler and placed soda cans on top of her body, said New York Assistant District Attorney Melissa Mourges during Juaraez's arraignment Saturday night.

Juarez and his sister hailed a cab to Manhattan, dropped the cooler off in a wooded area near the parkway, and then went their separate ways, authorities said."

Baby Hope, who's name was revealed to be Anjelica Castillo, can now be laid to rest and her tombstone will bear the proper name. Had she lived, she would be 26; It's weird to think that this girl would have been be my sister's age.

link: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/12/justice/new-york-cold-case-baby-hope/index.html?hpt=us_c1