Police Say Stranger Killed Pace Student

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The New York Sun

A college honors student found dead with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck apparently was suffocated with a pillow during a robbery by a stranger he invited to his apartment, police said yesterday.

Kevin Pravia, 19, was found in his bed Sunday night by his Manhattan roommate. He was last seen being helped into a taxi early Saturday after a party in Brooklyn and was reportedly drunk at the time.

Investigators said yesterday a 22-year-old man, being questioned in an unrelated case, admitted suffocating Pravia and stealing his cell phone, laptop computer, and iPod. They expected to charge the man in Pravia’s death, the deputy commissioner of public information for the police department, Paul Browne, said.

The man claimed Pravia approached him in Union Square park around 6 a.m. Saturday looking for drugs and the two went to his apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood. After the slaying, the man, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, stayed in the apartment to watch the gory horror film “Saw” before leaving before 11 a.m., police said.

No drugs were found at the scene, and there was no indication of sexual assault, police said.

The medical examiner’s office said an autopsy was inconclusive and additional tests were being performed to determine what caused Pravia’s death. There was no sign of forced entry, police said.

The suspect told investigators that Pravia fell asleep and he decided to rob him, so he punched the student in the face, stuffed a bag in his mouth, and wrapped the television cord around his neck, then suffocated him, police said. He said he sold the laptop on the street after leaving the apartment, sold the cell phone in a store, and couldn’t remember what he did with the iPod, they said.

Mr. Browne said police recovered the phone where it had been sold.

Pravia, who was a sophomore at Pace University, originally was from Peru, Mass.


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