By David Lohr
August 9, 2007
NEW YORK (Crime Library) — Police have apprehended 23-year-old Michael Cordero in connection with the death of his estranged girlfriend, Boitumelo "Tumi" McCallum, a 20-year-old woman whose badly decomposed body was found in her mother's Washington Square Village apartment on Sunday.
At approximately 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, Cordero's relatives spotted him perched on the roof of his family's apartment building at West 62nd and Amsterdam. Police had been searching for Cordero since Monday, when he allegedly made statements to a friend, suggesting he knew something about Tumi's murder.
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Michael A. Cordero |
Concerned for his safety, Cordero's relatives quickly took the stairway to the roof, where they found him bleeding from his wrists. When they tried to approach him, Cordero ran down the stairway and out the front door of the building. Witnesses on the street called 9-1-1 after they watched Cordero — still bleeding — run down the street with his family in close pursuit.
The chase ended at West End Avenue and West 62nd Street, when Cordero ran into a Western Beef supermarket. Moments later, a uniformed officer arrived on the scene and took Cordero into custody. He was then transported to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was treated for self-inflicted wounds to his wrists. While in the emergency room, police say Cordero made statements to hospital workers, implicating himself in Tumi's murder.
According to a police spokesman, Cordero said, "I killed my girlfriend. I couldn't take it, so I tried to kill myself."
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Boitumelo "Tumi" McCallum Found Dead in New York University Apartment
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