Castrated man
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 4:11 am
Man castrated, killed may have been abuser
By Associated Press
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - Updated: 12:50 AM EST
NEW YORK - Police are investigating whether a murdered man found gagged, handcuffed and castrated had been lured by his mentally disturbed stepdaughter to her home and attacked there to avenge a history of sexual abuse.
Police are checking reports Eric Goodridge, 55, may have abused Brigitte Harris as a child. Detectives were hoping to question the 26-year-old suspect at a hospital mental ward where she checked in before police found the body in her apartment Saturday.
He said his client's stepfather was "a monster."
"And living with a monster from the age of 3 is something that you just don't recover from without professional help," he said.
A woman identified by the Daily News as Goodridge's former mother-in-law called him a good father.
"I would die if I could believe that," she said when asked if he had harmed Harris.
Police said it was unclear how Goodridge, who was from the West African nation of Liberia and lived in Staten Island, ended up at his stepdaughter's top-floor apartment in a three-family home in the Rockaways section of Queens. When officers were summoned there at about 1 p.m. Saturday, they discovered his mutilated body; Harris was missing.
The victim had been bound with duct tape, handcuffed and strangled before having his penis sliced off, police said. The medical examiner determined he died from "homicidal violence," including gagging and neck compression. Eric Goodridge's strangled body was found bound in Harris' Far Rockaway, Queens apartment Saturday, handcuffed, his pants down, a rag around his neck and tape over his mouth. A scissors and scalpel were found in the apartment, though police aren't sure which instrument was used to cut off Goodridge's penis - a castration that apparently occurred after Goodridge, 55, died.
Police immediately began searching for Harris and learned she had checked into a hospital for psychological treatment.
By Associated Press
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - Updated: 12:50 AM EST
NEW YORK - Police are investigating whether a murdered man found gagged, handcuffed and castrated had been lured by his mentally disturbed stepdaughter to her home and attacked there to avenge a history of sexual abuse.
Police are checking reports Eric Goodridge, 55, may have abused Brigitte Harris as a child. Detectives were hoping to question the 26-year-old suspect at a hospital mental ward where she checked in before police found the body in her apartment Saturday.
He said his client's stepfather was "a monster."
"And living with a monster from the age of 3 is something that you just don't recover from without professional help," he said.
A woman identified by the Daily News as Goodridge's former mother-in-law called him a good father.
"I would die if I could believe that," she said when asked if he had harmed Harris.
Police said it was unclear how Goodridge, who was from the West African nation of Liberia and lived in Staten Island, ended up at his stepdaughter's top-floor apartment in a three-family home in the Rockaways section of Queens. When officers were summoned there at about 1 p.m. Saturday, they discovered his mutilated body; Harris was missing.
The victim had been bound with duct tape, handcuffed and strangled before having his penis sliced off, police said. The medical examiner determined he died from "homicidal violence," including gagging and neck compression. Eric Goodridge's strangled body was found bound in Harris' Far Rockaway, Queens apartment Saturday, handcuffed, his pants down, a rag around his neck and tape over his mouth. A scissors and scalpel were found in the apartment, though police aren't sure which instrument was used to cut off Goodridge's penis - a castration that apparently occurred after Goodridge, 55, died.
Police immediately began searching for Harris and learned she had checked into a hospital for psychological treatment.