Police are investigating whether a Queens mom found beaten and strangled next to a bloody iron in a SoHo hotel last week may have been a sex worker, The Post has learned.
The victim — 38-year-old Denisse Oleas-Arancibia — stayed for several nights each month at the SoHo 54 Hotel in Lower Manhattan going back about a year, law enforcement sources said.
Oleas-Arancibia is also believed to have been working for a man in Manhattan who she communicated with on WhatsApp, according to the sources.
Police have gathered shreds of evidence — including a security camera video of a man leaving the building after her death and a restaurant receipt left in the room — that they think could lead them to the killer, sources said.
And the crime scene showed indications that there might have been a dispute in the room, they added.
Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38, was discovered dead inside the SoHo 54 Hotel.
Denisse Oleas-Arancibia’s body was found on the floor under a blanket, authorities said.
But cops haven’t named a suspect yet.
A maid found Oleas-Arancibia’s corpse under a blanket Feb. 8 at the Watts Street hotel at about 10:30 a.m., authorities said.
Next to her lay a blood-splattered iron that sources say appeared to be broken.
A resident of Jackson Heights, Oleas-Arancibia had been staying at the hotel for several days, according to sources.
A maid at the the SoHo 54 Hotel found Oleas-Arancibia’s body. Peter Gerber
Oleas-Arancibia’s death was officially determined to be homicide, a spokesperson for the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner said.
Police are investigating whether Oleas-Arancibia may have been a sex worker, law enforcement sources revealed.. Peter GerberSources say the woman — who has no arrest history — had checked in that morning.
The NYC medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, with her cause of death being compression of the neck and blunt head trauma, a spokesperson said Monday.
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A tenant in the apartment next to her’s at a quaint two-story building said Oleas-Arancibia had moved in with her 18-year-old son a little over a month ago.
“They were very good neighbors. We only spoke in passing by so I didn’t know her that well. But they were good neighbors,” said the neighbor, who only gave his name as Jonathan.
The victim’s son said his mother appeared nervous in the week before she was killed.
The hotel where Denisse Oleas-Arancibia was found is in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Peter Gerber“In the week (before) she was like, sad,” Edwin Cevallos told the Daily News. “She was so nervous and she was worried.”
Oleas-Arancibia had moved to New York from Ecuador, the outlet said. She’d been living with Cevallos and a nephew while her parents and a younger son stayed in South America.
“She was always working for us to give us the best life in this country. She always had money to cover anything in the house,” he said. “She didn’t owe no money to anybody.”
Her son didn’t return calls and wasn’t home when The Post knocked Tuesday.
