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The nephew of a man found murdered in his Queens home 15 years ago has been arrested in Florida thanks to a tossed plastic fork, prosecutors say.
Anthony Scalici was indicted by a grand jury in the death of his 64-year-old uncle, Rosario Prestigiacomo, who was discovered face down in a pool of blood in his own hallway on Feb. 10, 2009. It wasn’t immediately clear if he entered a plea at his arraignment Thursday. Scalici, 41, of Boynton Beach, is accused of second-degree murder in the case.
It marks the first time a New York City homicide suspect was identified and arrested using public genealogy databases, officials say.
According to the investigation, cops were called to Prestigiacomo’s Ridgewood home on Greene Avenue around 2:15 p.m. that February day and encountered a bloodbath on the walls and floor. Prestigiacomo had been stabbed 16 times in the face, neck, torso and extremities — and suffered puncture wounds to his lung, esophagus, chest and abdomen.
He also endured blunt force injuries to his head, torso and extremities, according to investigators’ report.
Crime scene detectives collected several blood swabs from the location at the time. The medical examiner’s office was able to match a DNA profile to the victim as well as identify the DNA profile of a second, unknown man, which suggested the attacker had been hurt or bleeding.
Investigators ran the unidentified DNA through local, state and national systems with no results at the time.
In March 2022, the Queens district attorney’s office and the NYPD’s cold case unit sought help from a private lab and the Department of Homeland Security to try to generate leads using forensic genetic genealogy. A few months later, the lab was able to create an advanced genealogical profile from the suspect’s blood left at the scene.
That profile was then uploaded to public databases, information from which was also used to create a family tree to identify possible suspects or suspects’ relatives. Late in 2023, they got a potential lead and turned it over.
Ultimately, that led to the identification of Scalici. Earlier this year, detectives from the NYPD Cold Case Squad and Boynton Beach Police Department surveilled Scalici in an effort to get a discarded DNA sample — like from something he tossed in the track. On Feb. 17, 2024, detectives were able to retrieve a fork he had thrown away.
The fork produced a DNA profile that matched the unknown DNA profile recovered from under the victim’s fingernails. It also matched the unknown male DNA profile developed from the blood evidence left at the scene.
Scalici was apprehended in Boynton Beach earlier this month and extradited to New York on Wednesday to face charges. Authorities didn’t immediately speculate on a possible motive. It wasn’t clear if Scalici had an attorney.
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Julio "Gaby" Acevedo and Jennifer Millman
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