Richard W. Rogers
Similar Case
Drama was evident later in the day, November 1, when Medical Examiner Lyla Perez described the wounds she had noted during Mulcahy's autopsy. After he was murdered by stabbing, his body had been eviscerated and then cut into seven separate parts. She had photographs of the gory remains, and Ruhnke attempted to limit what the jury would actually view, since he believed the images would be "disturbing in nature." Nevertheless, the jury was allowed to examine five of the photographs.
The next day, as related in the Asbury Park Press, Lisa Hall, a former bartender at the Five Oaks Bar in New York's Greenwich Village, identified Rogers as the man she had seen with Michael Sakara, another victim. While Rogers was not on trial for his murder, Sakara's remains were found in a condition so similar to the New Jersey victims that his is one of two cases to also be allowed into testimony.
Hall said she had seen Rogers with Sakara on July 30, 1993. Parts of Sakara's remains were found the following day in Rockland County, and more turned up on August 8 in another location. At that time, authorities believed that this murder was linked to the Mulcahy and Marrero cases. All had been cut into exactly seven pieces and packaged in double or triple layers of bags. They had canvassed bars that August and found Hall, who had sent them in Rogers's direction, based on a photograph they had. Sakara, whom she knew well, had introduced Rogers to her, but had used a generic name. She only knew that Rogers had worked as a nurse. That lead had not paid off then, but once the prints were matched to Rogers, Hall became a valuable witness.