A doorbell camera recorded the moment when a man, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, accused of the murder of a 21-year-old girl, was seen carrying her lifeless body from a residence in Syracuse.
Jhon Moises Chacaguasay-Ilbis, also 21 years old, was captured in the footage entering the Airbnb where they had met at approximately 4:20 pm on June 18, with Joselyn Toaquiza, who was still alive at the time.
Three hours later, the same recording shows him carrying Toaquiza on his back, her arms and legs hanging limp. The footage does not confirm whether she was still alive at that point, but she was ultimately found buried in a shallow grave just a few feet away in Lincoln Park, directly across the street.
Toaquiza, who had been celebrating her birthday the day of the murder, studied with Chacaguasay-Ilbis in his native country. Cops say he traveled from Ecuador to Syracuse last week to meet her, after arriving in the US a year before.
He surrendered himself to feds at the border, and as of writing, it remains unknown where he had been staying. It is also unknown whether or not he was in the process of seeking asylum, as cops this week revealed he had been arrested.
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The newly released footage appears to show her and her alleged murderer- who cops say suffocated her to death – hours before she was murdered.
She is then seen draped over the man’s shoulders as he carries her body out of the house and into the driveway.
Syracuse police did not find her body until Saturday morning, after which a coworker of Toaquiza’s told CNY Central Thursday, ‘I was just overcome.’
‘He’s caught, and it will all come to light,’ Jennifer Engel said through tears, as cops were finally were able to locate her lost daughter and cuff her suspected killer.
‘She’s not coming back.’
Cops picked up Chacaguasay-Ilbis on Wednesday in Spring Valley, another New York city some 230 miles from the suspected scene of the crime.
Officers at the time added the owner of the Airbnb being rented out to the suspect told officers that there was blood found inside the home, though no other details were provided.
After bringing Toaquiza out to the driveway, the camera loses sight of him, but he later returns and exits with a set of new clothes, the video shows.
He goes onto hop into a waiting Lyft minivan, which cops say brought him to a local Greyhound station.
He went on to board a bus with a ticket to New York City, after which he turned himself in to the police Tuesday evening in Spring Valley.
The city, located in Rockland County, is set about 35 miles northwest of New York City, near the New York-New Jersey border.
Cops in their statement added how much like the past year, Chacaguasay-Ilbis’s whereabouts for the past week are for now unknown.
What is known is that Chacaguasay-Ilbis traveled to the United States last year and surrendered himself at the border, after which, like so many others in recent years, he was released into the county.
Cops said he may have been in the process of applying for asylum, but that too remains unknown.
After he was picked up Wednesday morning by Syracuse cops, he was transported back to Central New York, where he was arraigned on Thursday morning.
Police went on to reveal how Toaquiza too came from Chile, and imigrated from the county last year along with her uncle.
The pair lived together on Syracuse’s North Side, not far from the suspected scene of the murder.
The surveillance video, they said, came from the owner of the property being used as an Airbnb, who shared it with the woman’s family and police.
As of writing, Chacaguasay-Ilbis is being held at the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail, and will face court again on July 2.
Insiders reportedly employed by Homeland Security told The New York Post that Chacaguasay-Ilbis crossed into the US at El Paso, and was cut loose because there wasn’t enough space to hold him.
Last week, three people drowned in the waters of the Rio Grande late Tuesday in far west El Paso, brining the number of migrant deaths in federal run racilitites in the city since October to 102.
In 2023, the El Paso and Del Rio sectors of the border saw more crossings than any other place across the 2,000-mile stretch of land.
That year, some 4.2 million pedestrians crossed into El Paso from Juárez through the Stanton-Lerdo and Paso Del Norte bridges Downtown, National Bureau of Transportation Services data shows.
The Downtown bridges have since seen increases in northbound crossings, though they remain below pre-pandemic numbers.