Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
The final episode of Netflix’s true crime series Homicide: New York looks into the notorious serial killer and rapist Arohn Kee. Forbes stated that Kee, the East Harlem serial killer, sexually assaulted multiple teenage girls and murdered at least three in the 1990s. His crimes lasted for nearly a decade until detectives arrested him using DNA, which resulted in a conviction in 1999.
According to The New York Times, Kee’s conviction came on 22 counts of murder, rape, sodomy, and robbery. Following this, he received three life sentences without parole on the murder charges. Additionally, he got 400 years in prison for the rape charges, reported The New York Post.
Per the New York Department of Corrections, Arohn Kee, now 50, is serving his sentence in the Attica Correctional Facility.
How many murders was Arohn Kee convicted of?
The New York Times reported that Arohn Kee’s first victim was 13-year-old Paola Illera in 1991. He raped and strangled Illera and left her body in an East Harlem apartment building. Kee lived in the same apartment building back then. Moreover, authorities learned that he was possibly the last person to see Illera alive.
Kee’s second murder victim was 19-year-old Johalis Castro, whom he killed six years later in East Harlem. Authorities linked Kee to the case as he was the last person Castro had called before the murder. Police found Castro’s still burning on an East 104th Street rooftop, reported The New York Post. An autopsy suggested that she was still alive when he set her on fire.
In June 1998, Kee murdered 17-year-old Rasheeda Washington, a fashion student. He left Washington’s body in the stairwell of a Harlem housing project, per The New York Times. Moreover, around the time, authorities reportedly believed he raped two other girls, 15 and 14, in nearby locations.
Arohn Kee was reported to have remained a suspect in the three murders as well as several rapes until DNA eventually linked him to the crimes. The Department of Justice said police arrested Kee on an unrelated theft charge at first. When he denied any involvement in the assaults and murders, detectives took his DNA from a glass he had used during his prison time. A following DNA test linked him to the crimes.
Then, in January 1999, authorities arrested Kee at the Sun Hotel in Miami in February after receiving a tip. In December 1999, a jury convicted Kee of 22 counts of murder, rape, sodomy, and robbery. The murder charges stemmed from the killings of Paola Illera, Johalis Castro, and Rasheeda Washington.
In 2001, Kee received three life sentences without parole for the three murders. The New York Post further reported that three years later, DNA linked him to the 1994 rape of another teenage victim. Subsequently, Kee got sentenced to 400 additional years for the rape of four victims.
Homicide: New York is now available to stream on Netflix. The fifth and final episode chronicles Arohn Kee’s case.
