Arheel's Uncle
Senior Reporter
Manhattan
Man, 64, arrested in Manhattan cold case strangulation deaths of 2 women: NYPD
by: Aliza Chasan
Posted: Jan 23, 2023 / 04:31 PM EST
Updated: Jan 23, 2023 / 08:26 PM EST
Larry Atkinson, 64, is removed from the NYPD 50th Precinct station house in the Bronx, New York, on Monday, January 23, after being charged with a 1994 double murder.
Both victims were strangled in their bedrooms, officials said at the time.
Sarah Roberts’ body was found on a bed in one room of the apartment and her daughter Sharon’s was in a second bedroom — a woolen stocking wrapped around her neck.
Larry Atkinson, 64, was charged Monday with murdering the 57-year-old mother and her 25-year-old daughter inside their Grant Houses apartment on W. 125th St.
The suspect was dating the home health care aide who found the victims dead on Feb. 20, 1994, police sources said.
The aide was investigated at the time but cleared.
DNA recovered from the scene — a cigarette butt, tubing, a fingernail scraping from the mother and dried biological evidence from the daughter’s hand — did not initially link to any suspect.
But last year, an NYPD cold case detective took a fresh look at the crime, with the DNA again submitted for testing. The fingernail scraping and the dry biological evidence linked to Atkinson.
Atkinson, who has three aliases and 28 prior arrests and has served five stints in state prison, denied any wrongdoing when he was picked up.
After his arrest, the suspected killer, who lives in the Bronx, was taken to Bronx Care Health System, where he was scheduled for a chemotherapy treatment for cancer, sources said.
On Monday night, Atkinson was carried out of the 50th Precinct stationhouse strapped to a stretcher and wearing an oxygen mask. He was then loaded into an ambulance.
Cops said Atkinson claimed to have an injury and was headed to a hospital.
It was not immediately clear why he allegedly killed the victims or how he gained entry to their apartment.
The apartment had been partially ransacked, but there were no signs of forced entry. The caretaker, Celeste Cornelius, 65, who made the grisly discovery nearly 30 years ago, insisted Atkinson didn’t do it.
“He’s a good guy. He’s a good guy,” she said. ”He didn’t. I know he didn’t. I don’t care nothing about DNA — none of that mess. He didn’t do it.”
Atkinson’s parole ended in July 2016, three years after he was released from prison after serving two years for a drug sale conviction.
Neighbor Juliette Wilson, 84, said Cornelius and Atkinson were very nice people. They still live together, accord to residents.
“Yesterday he brought me packages, clothes for my daughter from Amazon,“ Wilson said. “He’s a good person. I’m surprised.”
In 1992, as Lee Jackson, he was convicted of attempted robbery and later paroled.
His first conviction, under his birth name, was in 1985 for assault. He served two years and was paroled in August 1987, records show.
With Mark Stamey
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