The “maniac” suspected of brutally beating a Queens mom to death inside a Soho hotel room and getting away wearing her pink leggings has a history of violent attacks on women across three states, police said Tuesday.
Raad Almansoori, 26, was nabbed by police in Arizona Sunday on charges that he kidnapped and stabbed a McDonald’s employee and carjacked another woman at knifepoint in the Grand Canyon State in the days after the vicious Manhattan slaying, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
The NYPD is now linking him to the death of 38-year-old Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who was working as an escort on Feb. 7 when she and Almansoori “got into a dispute over how much time he could spend in the room,” with the argument turning deadly, Kenny said.
The person of interest was captured on surveillance footage leaving the hotel wearing Oleas-Arancibia’s leggings. DCPIAlmansoori has not officially been arrested in the NY case because he is still being held in Arizona, but Kenny said there was “probable cause” to charge him.
“The subject has no prior arrest history in New York,” Kenny said. “However, he has an extensive out-of-state arrest history: He has been previously arrested in Florida, Texas and Arizona.”
He said Almansoori was charged last year with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in Florida but was free on bail in that case when he showed up in New York late last month.
The career criminal came clean on the New York City slaying after getting picked up on the Arizona cases, Kenny said.
Authorities in Maricopa County, Arizona, told The Post on Tuesday that Almansoori is being held there without bail on those cases — with Kenny telling reporters that New York is seeking to extradite him to New York City to face the charges in Oleas-Arancibia’s death.
Oleas-Arancibia allegedly made ends meet by working as an escort and over the past year spent several nights each month at the SoHo 54 Hotel.
The young mom of two had checked into the hotel at 2:14 p.m. the day before her death wearing a “distinct” pair of leggings that a man leaving the hotel was caught wearing in surveillance footage, police said
“We have video of the woman arriving at the location, wearing a distinct pair of leggings and later on we have a male leaving the hotel wearing the same leggings and we also have a pair of male pants in the hotel room. There was blood all over the pants,” Kenny said earlier this week.
A photo obtained by The Post shows the suspect walking on a sidewalk near the hotel wearing light-colored leggings, a tan jacket and a dark hoodie and beanie.
Denisse Oleas-Arancibia was found dead inside the hotel room on Feb. 8.
Several wellness calls were made to the front desk throughout the evening of Feb. 8 for Oleas-Arancibia.
One employee did walk into the room, despite a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door handle, but quickly left after seeing her covered by a blanket on the floor, thinking she was just asleep.
Her body was discovered the following morning after additional wellness calls were made and her 18-year-old son filed a missing person’s request in Jackson Heights.
Oleas-Arancibia was found covered by a blanket on the floor.
A cause of death has not been determined, but, after finding bits of plastic embedded in Oleas-Arancibia’s head, investigators believe the bloody iron was “one of the methods that was used to kill her.”
The NYC medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, with her cause of death being compression of the neck and blunt head trauma.
Oleas-Arancibia’s son, Edwin Cevallos, said she was “always working for us to give us the best life in this country.”
The person of interest was taken into custody in Arizona, police sources told The Post. DCPI“She always had money to cover anything in the house,” he said. “She didn’t owe no money to anybody.”
According to her son, Oleas-Arancibia appeared nervous in the days leading up to her death.
“In the week (before) she was like, sad,” Cevallos said. “She was so nervous and she was worried.”
The NYC medical examiner ruled her death a homicide. Peter GerberOleas-Arancibia had moved to New York from Ecuador. She’d been living with Cevallos and a nephew while her parents and a younger son stayed in South America.
Almansoori has lived in Texas, Florida and Arizona, where his family still lives, Kenny said at the Tuesday briefing.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has dispatched a prosecutor to Arizona and is in the process of arranging for extradition to New York.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard said Tuesday that the department is just happy to have him locked up.
“I’m just glad that Arizona got this maniac off the streets,” he said.
