Cornelia Crilley: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?

With Netflix’s ‘Woman of the Hour’ delving deep into the tale of a serial killer whose offenses were so extreme no one could have ever imagined he would manage to escape, but he did. He raped, killed, and tortured 8 individuals over a period of 9 years, but it has been assumed that his victim count can be as high as 130, all owing to the fact he actually photographed several of them. Amongst them was actually Cornelia Michel Crilley, who was found dead in her brand new 427 East 83rd Street Manhattan, New York, apartment on June 12, 1971.

Cornelia Crilley Was Raped Before Being Killed by Nylon Stockings

At the age of 23, Cornelia was living her best possible life as not just a Trans World Airlines flight attendant but also a proud daughter and girlfriend who was just starting to make her mark on the world. The truth is her father was once a high-profile individual with success at his feet, she had great relations with her mother as well as step-father, and she seemed utterly happy with her Brooklyn homicide prosecutor boyfriend Leon Borstein. But alas, little did any of them know that her light would soon be snatched away from her in the blink of an eye.

It was June 12, 1971, when the police walked into an apartment at 427 East 83rd Street in Manhattan, New York, after receiving calls for a welfare check as Cornelia was uncharacteristically unreachable, just for them to find her dead inside. Leon was actually with the police outside of the building when this transpired, following which he refused to go in even to identify her body after being told the situation because he did not want that to be his last memory of her. It turns out she had been brutally raped in her apartment and strangled to death with her own nylon stockings.

Corneila Crilley’s Case Went Unsolved For Decades

Despite the crime scene being a mess, investigators, unfortunately, could not recover any concrete evidence at the time since Cornelia had evidently just moved into the place and was setting it up when everything went down. However, because of a lack of any concrete information, all they could do was interview her loved ones and look into those either close to her or those who didn’t like her, amongst whom was Leon. He actually ended up being a person of interest considering they were dating at the time, but he was never formally arrested, charged, or tried for the matter.

According to records, Corneila’s loved ones did their best to help authorities bring the case into the limelight in the hopes of attaining some answers while also being completely open with them, but to no avail. As for Leon, he sadly couldn’t help much despite his position owing to the simple fact that he was not privy to much information as a person of interest. No one at the police department was letting him know anything, and her family had kept some distance, too. Therefore, with no leads, no concrete evidence, and no clear path forward, her case went cold until the 2000s.

It was around 2003 when a cold case unit picked up Corneila’s case, just to realize that serial killer Rodney Alcala had spent some years in New York before ultimately relocating to California. That’s where he participated in ‘The Dating Game’ before continuing his crime spree and ultimately getting arrested, revealing he used the alias John Berger while in New York. This name was later connected to an unrelated murder, but officials believed they had enough to look into him and hence obtained a warrant to interview him in the California death row prison where he was incarcerated.

Rodney Alcala Killed Croneila Crilley in Cold Blood

As per records, when New York officers showed up to question Rodney and get his dental impressions, the first thing he said was, “What took you so long?” It was only then that officials became even more sure of his involvement in Corneila’s murder, which was soon confirmed when a brutal bite mark on her body was deemed consistent with his teeth impressions. It was then hypothesized that this 23-year-old met the serial killer as she moved into her new apartment, just for her to then accept his help in moving some furniture, unaware he’d end up killing in the worst of ways.

Then came 2010, when officials found in a storage locker that Rodney had kept in Seattle, Washington, since 1979, which contained countless photographs he had taken as himself or under his alias. These photographs were of little girls, boys, and women in various stages of dress, undress, and in the middle of abuse, making it clear most of them were likely his victims. Therefore, in January 2011, a Manhattan grand jury indicted him for the murders of Caroline in 1971 and fellow 23-year-old New York resident Ellen Jane Hover in 1977. He was extradited from a California prison to New York in June 2012, where he initially pled not guilty to both counts before changing his plea in December, citing a desire to quickly return to California and appeal his death penalty. So, since the death penalty was abolished in New York in 2007, he was sentenced to just an additional 25 years to life for these offenses on January 7, 2013. But, in the end, he passed away of natural causes while still on death row in California on July 24, 2021 – he was 77 at the time.

Read More: Tali Shapiro: Where is the Dating Game Killer Survivor Now?

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