Naman Shrestha
Netflix’s ‘Homicide: New York’ is a true crime docuseries that deals with several mind-boggling homicidal cases that have taken place in the Big Apple. Each of these cases sent shockwaves across the entire city while investigators and prosecutors moved heaven and earth, trying to get to the bottom of it all and bringing the perpetrator/s to justice. In the episode titled ‘East Harlem Serial Killer,’ we are introduced to a serial rapist and killer named Arohn Warford, who wreaked havoc in the East Harlem neighborhood in the 1990s, taking several victims. It also includes the cat-and-mouse chase between the serial killer and the police during the investigation of several cases of rape and murder.
Who Were Arohn Warford’s Victims?
Also known as The East Harlem Rapist and Arohn “Ace” Malik Kee, Arohn Warford was welcomed into the world on September 18, 1973. Born and raised in Manhattan, New York, Arohn managed to keep clear from the police’s radar, even after committing several felonies. It was the June 1998 case of Rasheda Washington’s murder that made the police look deep into the rap sheet of Arohn Warford. Using his charm and intelligence, he had taken several Black or Hispanic women victims and was responsible for four counts of rape and at least three counts of murder of different teenage girls in the neighborhood of East Harlem.
On June 2, 1998, the police found the body of 18-year-old Rasheeda Washington in a 15th-floor stairwell of an East 112th Street building. Arohn had robbed, sexually assaulted, and strangled her to death. She was a fashion student and was working at a clothing boutique to support her dreams. Upon conducting DNA tests on the biological evidence on Rasheeda’s body, the authorities found a match with two other rape victims that took place in 1995 and 1996, in Manhattan. As the detectives dug deeper and connected the dots of all three crimes, they were led to their prime suspect — Arohn Kee. When questioning him for hours didn’t yield any results, the detectives began tailing him 24/7 and even installed a hidden camera right outside the front door of his apartment. All this effort just to collect a piece of his DNA and link him to the crimes.
Right when the police were closing in on him, Arohn destroyed the hidden camera and took off to Miami with his 15-year-old girlfriend — Angelique Stalling. For a few weeks, Arohn and Angelique moved from one hotel to the other, never staying in one place for a long time. When they received a tip informing them that he had been staying at the Miami Sun Hotel, the Miami officers broke into his hotel room and arrested him on February 19, 1999. Fortunately, Angelique was not harmed at all and was immediately flown back to New York City. Soon, Arohn was also transported to New York, where he was questioned again. When the detectives failed to get a confession out of him for all his crimes, Angelique took permission to talk to her boyfriend alone in the interrogation room.
While talking to Angelique, Arohn hardly took any time before admitting to the rapes and murders he had committed. So, he was arrested for the murder of Rasheeda Washington, the two rapes from 1995 and 1996 mentioned above, and the kidnapping and false imprisonment of Angelique. Furthermore, he was also found to be involved in the January 1991 murder and rape of the 13-year-old schoolgirl Paola Illera, while he was only 17 years old. Arohn used to live in the same building as Paola at the time, and the two had been at the elevator at the same time before Paola was found dead. While the detectives interviewed him then as well, he introduced himself as Arohn Warford. Since there was nothing connecting him to the crime, they had to let him go.
Furthermore, on September 13, 1997, Arohn raped, smothered, and burned the body of 19-year-old Johalis Castro in her apartment building. Another rape case from 1992 was also linked to the serial killer. After being charged with three murders and three rapes, he stood on trial in 2000 where he pled not guilty. In his defense, he stated that he believed he was being framed for the crimes he had not committed and the DNA testing was fake. Despite his best efforts to avoid conviction, the jury passed the guilty verdict on December 16, 2000. About a month later, in January 2001, he received three consecutive terms of life imprisonment sentences, and he also apologized for his behavior at the trial.
Ace Serial Killer Remains Behind Bars in New York
The detectives did not rest easy even after the conviction and sentencing of Arohn Warford as they kept conducting DNA testing on several unsolved rape and murder cases in the Harlem neighborhood to find out if he was involved in more crimes. In 2004, the police learned that he was also connected to the July 1994 rape of a 17-year-old girl in her apartment’s basement. Another trial for this charge began in June 2004.
This time, Arohn, instead of claiming that he was innocent, admitted and owned up to his crime, showcasing that he was a changed man. Apart from displaying remorse, he even asked for forgiveness. Then, on August 12, 2004, he was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison for the rape case. At present, the Ace serial killer sits behind bars serving his lifelong sentence in Attica Correctional Facility at 639 Exchange Street Road in Attica.
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