DAPHNE Abdela was convicted of one of the most shocking US murders of the nineties.
Here’s everything we know about the Baby-Faced Butcher and where she is now.
AP:Associated PressDaphne Abdela pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday March 11, 1998 at Manhattan Criminal Court[/caption]
Who is Daphne Adbela?
When she was just 15 years old, food industry heiress Abdela was accused of murdering and disemboweling Michael McMorrow in Central Park on the night of May 23, 1997.
Prosecutors believed she and her friend Christopher Vasquez, who was also 15 at the time, attacked McMorrow following a night of drinking alcohol — leaving him with fatal injuries to his face, hands, and neck.
McMorrow’s body was found in the Strawberry Fields section of the park — a landscaped memorial dedicated to former Beatles legend John Lennon.
His lifeless body had been filled with stones and pushed into a pond.
In the Netflix series Homicide: New York, former NY police department detectives said Abdela called 911 to notify cops after the killing and tried to blame the murder on Vasquez.
But cops found damning evidence proving Abdela was involved, and she ultimately accepted a manslaughter charge as part of a plea deal.
In 1997, Abdela’s arrest was splashed across headlines in the city as she was the daughter of the successful vice president of a major food company — Angelo Abdela.
As the only adopted child of the executive and his former model wife, Abdela enjoyed all the privileges of growing up in New York City’s desirable Upper West Side.
She attended elite private school Columbia Grammar and Preparatory.
The teen was described as brash and unmanageable by people who knew her — she preferred drinking booze and picking fights over studying, The New York Times reported in 1998.
Speaking exclusively to The U.S. Sun, author Stella Sands, who wrote about McMorrow’s murder, said, “She was just a bada**.
“She was difficult. She was tough-looking and would hang out on our street.
“She was not your sweet lovely little blonde girl.”
What happened to Michael McMorrow?
On the night of McMorrow’s murder, Abdela met up with Vasquez, whom she had met in Central Park just a few weeks prior.
At some point during the evening they saw McMorrow, who had become Abdela’s drinking buddy after they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
The trio hung out and drank like any other night, but Abdela eventually made a harrowing 911 call in the early hours of the morning.
She told police that a body was in the pond, leading officers to race to her family’s apartment and launch a massive search effort.
Crews found McMorrow’s corpse with 38 stab wounds, including six to the heart, and saw his intestines floating in the water above him.
While crews were looking for McMorrow’s body, responding officers checked on Abdela and found her and Vasquez washing blood off their bodies in a bathroom.
She cursed them out and told them to leave, but later admitted that she played a part in McMorrow’s murder.
Abdela claimed that McMorrow, a middle-aged music fan who lived with his mother, had tried to kiss and grope her after the teens went skinny dipping.
This led Vasquez to grab his pocket knife and attack McMorrow while Abdela sat back and watched in horror, she told cops at the time.
Detectives found Vasquez’s bloody knife, with investigators determining the blood was McMorrow’s.
Michael McMorrow was found dead in a Central Park pond after being stabbed 38 — leaving his intestines floating above him in the water
In a private meeting with prosecutors and the district attorney, Abdela later changed her story.
Detectives believed that Abdela’s allegations didn’t align with McMorrow’s character and questioned how Vasquez was able to overpower a 6-foot-1 man who weighed around 200 pounds singlehandedly.
The medical examiner also found bruises on the real estate worker’s body that were consistent with the bottom of Abdela’s roller skates, which were also spattered with blood.
Detectives believed that Abdela helped Vasquez during the attack on McMorrow and assisted in dragging his body into the pond.
When the evidence was presented to Abdela and her lawyer Benjamin Brafman — a famous criminal defense attorney who has represented the likes of Sean Combs — a plea deal was made.
Vasquez was found guilty of manslaughter in 1998, but several jury members believed that Abdela was the true murderer who got away, the New York Times reported.
Because Abdela never faced trial, there are still questions over what happened that night.
The motivation behind the killing and who took McMorrow’s life are mysteries to this day.
Abdela and Vasquez were both convicted of manslaughter and served six years of their sentence before they were both released.
Neither of them have been arrested since their release.
How long did Daphne Adbela go to jail for?
Abdela pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison.
The Baby-Faced Butcher served six years before she was released in 2004.
She hadn’t been pictured since her sentencing in 1998 until Exclusive photos by The U.S. Sun were published showing her as unrecognizable from the teen girl who appeared in a courtroom nearly three decades ago.
Where is Daphne Adbela now?
Abdela was spotted in New York City in April 2024 for the first time since her disturbing murder case was featured in a Netflix documentary.
Now 41 years old, she was pictured on a Starbucks run and her appearance has changed dramatically since she was last seen.
Photos taken outside of a Starbucks also revealed that she now uses a cane to walk, which could stem from a car accident that allegedly left her disabled in 2009, according to a lawsuit.
Abdela sued two drivers after getting in a wreck that allegedly left her “rendered sick, sore, lame and disabled, experiencing mental anguish and great pain and suffering,” the New York Post reported at the time.
Court records seen by The U.S. Sun show that the case was closed, but it’s unclear how it was resolved and whether her alleged injuries were discussed.
The U.S. Sun was able to confirm Abdela’s identity after showing the photos to neighbors on the street where public records indicate she lives.
The U.S. Sun made several attempts to get a comment or statement from Abdela, but she did not respond to door knocks or calls.
Abdela seen walking with a cane following a 2009 lawsuit in which she claimed a car accident left her disabled
The murder of Michael McMorrow
On May 23, 1997, Daphne Abdela and Christopher Vasquez, both 15, met up with Michael McMorrow, 44, whom Daphne had met at Alcoholics Anonymous.
Later that night, Abdela called 911 to report that there was a body in a pond in Central Park.
First responders found McMorrow’s body covered with stab wounds.
Abdela pointed the finger at Vasquez when she was confronted by police that same night.
However, detectives questioned how he could singlehandedly kill a 200-pound man.
The medical examiner later found bruises on McMorrow’s body that aligned with the bottom of Abdela’s roller skates.