Posted on 07/28/2006 8:45:54 AM PDT by Marius3188
She sneaked into Manhattan for a night of partying with her girlfriend. But it ended in tragedy when Jennifer Moore was snatched from the street, driven to a cheap New Jersey hotel, beaten, strangled and then dumped in a trash bin.
The 18-year-old's body was discovered about 4:30 a.m. yesterday, two days after she got lost walking along 12th Ave. on the West Side, wearing a black halter top and white miniskirt.
Chunks of her long, brown hair had been ripped out of her head and her body horribly bruised.
As ex-con Draymond Coleman, 34, and his prostitute girlfriend were being held in the savage slaying, Moore's heartbroken father tearfully told how he was struggling to deal with every parent's worst nightmare.
"I think you all know by now we've learned the worst possible news," Hugh Moore, 58, said outside the family's Harrington Park, N.J., home. "Jennifer's been taken from us.
"No one should have to lose a child. You can imagine, it's devastating. All the friends, everyone feels they could have done something that could have made a difference.
"It sounds like somebody got a hold of her very quickly and she never had a chance." Investigators believe Jennifer Moore was sexually assaulted in a drab room on the third floor of the Park Ave. Hotel in Weehawken, before Coleman strangled and beat her as his lover watched, sources said.
Coleman - a drifter and small-time pimp with 16 prior arrests for assault, robbery and drug crimes - had rented the room for a month, paying about $250 a week. His lover was almost always with him.
"They looked like nice people," a hotel clerk said yesterday as cops swarmed the building.
Moore's body was found at 4:30 a.m. yesterday in a trash bin about two blocks away. Her corpse was likely carried out of the hotel in a suitcase, a source said.
Less than 48 hours had passed since the spirited prep school graduate and her 18-year-old pal, Talia Kenan, had cruised into Manhattan in Kenan's mother's car. The girls went straight to the trendy Chelsea club Guest House on W. 27th St.
All patrons are required to show identification before entering the club, but at least one of the teens knew the deejay - a connection that a law enforcement source said may have allowed the underage duo to get inside.
The teens drank heavily until 2:30 a.m., police said, when they walked back to where they had parked the car and discovered it had been towed. About an hour later they took a cab to the NYPD impound lot at Pier 76.
Clearly drunk, Kenan cursed loudly after an impound clerk told her she couldn't have the car back until she sobered up. Kenan continued to argue with the clerk and then collapsed shortly after 4 a.m. After employees called an ambulance, Moore wandered off.
Kenan was taken at 4:18 a.m. to St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, where doctors treated her for alcohol poisoning.
Lost on the far West Side, Moore used her cell phone at 5:08 a.m. to call her boyfriend, Kofi Boakye, in New Jersey. She told him she thought she was being followed, police said. Boakye, 18, told her to take a cab to the hospital.
But two minutes later, Coleman had Moore's cell phone and she was never heard from again. Cops believe Coleman lured Moore into a cab by telling her he was going to New Jersey.
Investigators say the violent ex-con used Moore's phone at 5:10 a.m. to call his mother, Griselda Wright, and a former girlfriend.
Security cameras videotaped Coleman propping up Moore as they walked into the Weehawken hotel about 10 minutes later, sources said.
Cops arrested Coleman and his girlfriend early yesterday at a hotel at W. 145th St. and Broadway after questioning the ex-con's mother and a former lover, a police source said.
Coleman - who was last released from prison in January 2005 - was charged with murder in New Jersey. His unidentified girlfriend is expected to be charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
Sources said Coleman had scraped under Moore's nails to remove any skin she might have scratched off him during a struggle. The crude cleaning bloodied her fingertips. Coleman also tried to swab portions of Moore's body with alcohol wipes to remove DNA evidence, sources said.
Moore's loved ones said she was the youngest of three siblings and aspired to be a nurse.
"I just break down in tears and I try to be strong for my wife and everybody else. And then I break down again," her devastated dad said, adding he had never seen her drunk. "Kids think they're grown up and try to do grown-up things. Hopefully, none of them will have to pay the price that Jen did."
The final moments of Jennifer Moore's life:
Tuesday, 2:30 a.m.: Moore and her pal, Talia Kenan, leave the Guest House club at 542 W. 27th St.
2:40 a.m.: The girls realize Kenan's car was towed from an illegal parking spot.
3:45 a.m.: They enter the NYPD tow pound on 12th Ave. near W. 38th St. Kenan passes out and Moore wanders away.
5:08 a.m.: Moore calls her boyfriend on her cell phone and says she is scared, lost and that a man is following her.
5:10 a.m.: Suspect Draymond Coleman allegedly uses Moore's cell phone to call his mom and a former girlfriend.
5:20 a.m.: Coleman allegedly walks Moore into the Park Avenue Hotel in Weehawken, N.J.
5:38 a.m.: Moore's cell phone is shut off. She is assaulted and strangled in the hotel.
Wednesday, 11 a.m.: Coleman and a girlfriend check out of the Park Avenue Hotel. NYPD uses cell phone records to track down Coleman's mom. Cops determine he sleeps in flophouses on the upper West Side.
Yesterday, 2:30 a.m.: Cops arrest Coleman at a hotel on W. 145th St.
4:30 a.m.: Moore's beaten body is found in a trash bin near the hotel.
Sickening.
Should we start holding judges accountable for those they set free?
I was in NYC for the first time in Aug. 2002. I got lost as well (and at night, too). I just smiled and made eye contact with everyone. Thought that might help. :) But.... it all worked out OK. Maybe they thought *I* was crazy!
Good gosh how awful. Prayers for her family. We have some diseased people in this country right now. New York needs a three strikes law.
God I'm scared to death for my daughters to get older.
Modern women must learn that they are the weaker and vulnerable gender when it comes down to brass tacks. They must be taught the old age wisdom of their limits when they decide to go out, especially at night, and not drinking and partying in public places. Drinking into the late night makes them vulnerable to all kinds of criminal and sick predators. Unfortunately another young woman had to die because of violating this simple old fashion rule.
Truly sad that this woman lost her life.
Between Natallie Holloway, Imette Saint Guillen and this woman, you would think people would learn getting bombed out of your skull and heading off by yourself without friends is incredibly dangerous.
You and me both brother. Only I would be covered in blood spatter and brain material.
You were most likely not batshiat drunk and walking along a deserted stretch of Manhattan at 4am.
"I just smiled and made eye contact with everyone. Thought that might help. :) "
Wow. Have things changed? I grew up in NYC and I learned early to never make eye contact and keep a blank expression.
Caused me some problems in my transition to the South since everyone here says, "Hi," and smiles at everyone.
I would love to finally have a three strikes law here. But, you're talking about a state that elected Schillery & Schmuckie to the Sentate and barely has the fortitude to stand up to the terrorists who killed almost 3,000 NYers on September 11th. Moreover, our death penalty was just found unconstitutional by the highest court here and is in limbo (not even cop killers right now face any real penalty).
I need to move before my daughters grow up.
I am printing this story out and giving it to my all knowing 16 year old daughter.
Not doubt. If NY does not have a three strike law, at least the parent can have their own three strike law.
Daughter, you mess up three times. You stay home forever and/or until age 35.
Wendy Murphy would read you the Riot Act. Just like she did when Immette St. Gullien suffered the same fate after a (stop me if you've heard this before) a night of heavy drinking.
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