The long-unsolved case of a Bronx mother found murdered in her apartment while preparing for a Thanksgiving party has been solved after the mother’s ex-boyfriend was found handcuffed in Ohio, police said.
Authorities said James DeBoer, 54, of Mansfield, was extradited from the Buckeye State to New York on Wednesday to face a second-degree murder charge in the Nov. 23, 2005, stabbing death of 28-year-old Erica Robinson at Grand Avenue near McCombs Road in a Morris Heights apartment.
Police officials said DeBoer was tracked down through DNA evidence.
Authorities said Robinson was stabbed in the chest inside his studio apartment around 7:15 a.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities said her daughter, who was 12 at the time, found her lying in a pool of blood.
Robinson also lived in the townhouse apartment with DeBoer’s then-15-year-old daughter.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Robinson left her parents and two siblings and moved to New York four years before she was killed, The Post reported at the time.
The victim’s landlord, Jerome Brandt, said at the time that Robinson, who worked as a security guard at a shelter for the mentally ill, had moved into his building from a homeless shelter the previous year.
“She was working really hard to rebuild her life,” said Brandt, 52. “She was successful, and I was really happy for her.”
He described the young victim as “bubbly, kind and respectful.”
Blount said he was the last person to see Robinson the night before the murder, returning home with pots, pans and food to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for friends and family.
Authorities said at the time that there were no signs of forced entry and no weapons were found.
“I think she knew the killer. I think the girls knew the killer,” Brandt said at the time. “They must have known.”
DeBoer’s arrest comes about a week after investigators used DNA evidence to solve another cold case in New York.
According to prosecutors and sources, Anthony Scalisi, now 41, was linked to the brutal murder of his uncle, Rosario Prestigiacoma, then 64, in February 2009 inside a home on Greene Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, through a DNA sample taken from a fork Scalisi used at a Florida restaurant.
Scalisi, who lived in Boynton Beach, was extradited to New York on Wednesday night and charged with second-degree murder in the case, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
