MALDEN, Mass. (AP) — A suspect in the slaying 30 years ago of a 17-year-old girl in Massachusetts was held without bail at his arraignment on Thursday.
Rodney Daniels, 48, of South Fulton, Georgia, faces a murder charge in the July 1991 shooting death of Patricia Moreno in Malden, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Malden police Chief Kevin Molis said in a statement. He was arrested in Georgia earlier this week.
Daniels pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Leonard Milligan, said by phone after the arraignment that it is premature for him to comment on the specifics and he plans his own investigation into the case.
Moreno was found in the early morning hours with a gunshot wound to the head on the fire escape of her foster family’s third-floor apartment and died at the hospital, authorities said.
Daniels dated one of her foster mother’s daughters and was at the apartment at the time of the shooting, according to the statement. He told investigators he had been asleep when he was awakened by gunfire and found Moreno’s body.
Investigators determined Daniels had been in possession of guns around the time of the killing and had “engaged in threatening behavior toward the victim,” but no one was charged.
He was arrested based on new evidence collected by the district attorney’s cold case unit, including the account of someone who had lived in the building at the time and who described seeing someone fitting Daniels’ description on the fire escape, authorities said.
Daniels is originally from the Boston area and still has family living locally, some of whom attended the arraignment, Milligan said. Members of Moreno’s family also attended.
“After three decades we have taken the first steps today to hold accountable the person who we allege took Tricia’s life,” District Attorney Ryan said in a statement. “It is always with mixed emotions that we make these announcements as we know this will not fill the void caused by the loss of a daughter, a sister and a friend to many.”
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