The Connecticut man arrested for the brutal strangling death of a New York City nurse may be responsible for as many as seven other murders, authorities said.
Danuel Drayton, 27, of New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested in Los Angeles on July 24, for allegedly strangling 29-year-old Samantha Stewart to death in New York City on July 17.
Stewart was found dead in her home in Queens, New York, with her teeth knocked out and her tongue hanging out. She was covered in a white sheet. Stewart’s 17-year-old brother made the gruesome discovery.
Danuel Drayton, 27, of New Haven, Connecticut, was arrested in Los Angeles on July 24, for allegedly strangling 29-year-old Samantha Stewart in New York City on July 17
Authorities tracked down Drayton in Los Angeles, where they found him in the same residence as a woman who had been tied up and was said to be held against her will, the New York Daily News reported.
Drayton was charged with felony attempted murder, false imprisonment and penetration with a foreign object.
He is currently being held on $1.25million bail in Los Angeles, and has a NYPD hold as well, according to jail records.
Authorities believe that Stewart met Drayton on the dating app Tinder.
Authorities believe that Drayton met Stewart on dating app Tinder and said during a press conference that he may have used dating sites to meet other women and victimize them
‘It is believed by us that this individual uses dating websites to meet women and then victimizes these women,’ NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea told media at a press conference Thursday.
Authorities said that Stewart’s case and a prior, separate accusation of rape in Brooklyn led investigators to Drayton and made it possible for them to arrest him in California, ABC 7 reported.
Drayton had previously been arrested for strangulation in Nassau County, New York, on June 30 and has five priors in Connecticut, including a 2011 strangulation arrest.
Police believe Drayton may have additional victims and are asking them to come forward.