Warning: The following post contains discussions of murder and sexual assault.
From a grisly murder that took place in an upscale Sutton Place apartment to a serial rapist who was ultimately responsible for the Central Park jogger case that sent five innocent men to prison, the NYPD detectives look back at the investigations that defined their careers. The final episode covered the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
The four previous cases aren’t as well-known as the 9/11 attacks, so we’re doing a deep dive into where the killers from Episodes 1-4 are today.
Party Monster (Episode 1)
Joey Comunale went out in New York City on November 12, 2016, and never came home. The 26-year-old attended an after-party in a Sutton Place apartment, and his charred body was later found buried in a shallow grave all the way in New Jersey. Comunale had been stabbed more than a dozen times, and his body was then burned.
The owner of the apartment was James Rackover, who had a lengthy criminal history in Florida. (Rackover was the “surrogate son” of Jeffrey Rackover, once known as the “jeweler to the stars.”) He was later arrested and charged with Comunale’s murder, along with Larry Dilione.
In October 2018, Rackover was convicted of second degree murder, hindering prosecution, and the concealment of a corpse. He was sentenced to 28 years to life in prison. He’s currently an inmate at Elmira Correctional Facility in New York. Rackover is eligible for parole in 2045.
Dilione decided to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of going to trial. He’s serving 23 years in prison at Clinton Correctional Facility in New York. His earliest release date is 2037.
Max Gemma, who has claimed he was drunk and asleep on the couch when the murder took place, pled guilty to hindering prosecution in 2019 and received a sentence of six months in jail.
Mother Knows Best (Episode 2)
The second episode of Homicide: New York covers the shocking murder of socialite Irene Silverman. After her husband died, Silverman began renting out her Upper East Side townhouse to tenants. One tenant, Manny, sparked concern, and he would often sneak a woman named Eva into the residence. When Irene went missing in 1998, Manny became the prime suspect.
A member of an FBI task force later told investigators that they’d arrested a mother and son, Sante and Kenny Kimes, on the day of Silverman’s disappearance because they’d used a stolen check to buy a car in Utah. Sante had Silverman’s ID and $10,000 cash on her.
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As the investigation continued, Sante and Kenny were connected to another murder in Los Angeles. Detectives also uncovered that the Kimes duo attempted to create a fraudulent transaction to make it appear that Silverman was signing over her townhouse to them. Five months after Silverman’s disappearance, the mother and son were indicted on 84 counts, including murder in the second degree.
In October 2000, Sante and Kenny were awaiting extradition to California for the murder of David Kazdin, a former business associate. During an on-camera interview with a Court TV producer that Kenny had agreed to, he took the woman hostage for more than five hours. She eventually escaped.
Three years later, Kenny made a cooperation agreement with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He testified against his mother and confessed to the murders of Kazdin and Silverman in exchange for a sentence that did not include the death penalty for himself and his mother. Kenny told police that he choked Silverman to death and disposed of her body in a dumpster in New Jersey. Silverman’s body has never been found.
Both Sante and Kenny were handed life sentences. In 2014, Sante died at the age of 79 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York. Kenny is currently incarcerated at the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York.
Soho Horror (Episode 3)
Sylvie Cachay was a fashion designer, best known for designing swimsuits for Victoria’s Secret. The 33-year-old was found dead in a bathtub at Soho House, a private members’ club, on December 9, 2010. She died by strangulation and drowning.
Her boyfriend, Nicholas Brooks, was an immediate suspect. Brooks was the son of Oscar-winning composer Joseph Brooks, who had been charged with sexually assaulting 13 women in 2009 and later died by suicide before he could be convicted.
Brooks had checked in with Cachay at Soho House after a small fire in her apartment. Brooks claimed he had left the room and gone out for drinks with someone he met in the lobby. He was later arrested and charged with her murder.
He pleaded not guilty, but Brooks was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Brooks is currently incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York. He’ll be eligible for parole in 2035.
Your Eyes or Your Life (Episode 4)
Following the shocking assault and rape of jogger Trisha Meili in Central Park on April 19, 1989, tensions were high in New York City. Five young men, who later became known as the “Central Park Five,” were wrongfully convicted of assaulting and raping Meili.
Two months after the Central Park Jogger case, pregnant mother Lourdes Gonzalez was murdered by a man who broke into her apartment. He told her, “Your eyes or your kids.” As her two older kids waited in another room with their baby sister, Gonzalez was raped and stabbed to death before the perpetrator fled.
Once Gonzalez’s case went public, investigators realized they had a serial rapist on their hands, one who threatened other women with this chilling message: “Your eyes or your life.”
As he attempted to rape a young woman, she managed to escape, and 18-year-old Matias Reyes was arrested. He admitted to multiple rapes, but he initially denied any involvement in Gonzalez’s murder. But once he was shown a sketch of him drawn from the recollections of Gonzalez’s two kids, he confessed. Reyes was sentenced to 33 years to life.
In 2002, Reyes claimed that he was the one behind the Central Park jogger assault and rape, and he acted alone. Reyes’ DNA matched the semen found on Meili. Due to the five-year statute of limitations, Reyes was not charged with Meili’s rape and assault. The five young men who unfairly spent time in prison for a crime they didn’t commit were exonerated.
Reyes is currently serving his sentence at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in New York. He is up for parole in August 2026.
If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network‘s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or a loved one is in immediate danger, call 911.
Homicide: New York, Season 2, Now Streaming, Netflix
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kpcnews.com ’
