Police Charge Suspect In Harvard Alumna Death

New York Police yesterday arrested a 22-year-old Bronx man in connection with the stabbing death of Caroline R. Isenberg '84, charging him with second degree murder and posession of a dangerous weapon.

Police took into custody Emmanuel Torres, whom they identified as the son of the superintendent of the building in which Isenberg lived. He is reported to have lived in the Upper West Side building before moving to his current residence in the Bronx.

Torres had apparently locked himself in the basement of the building for several hours after the Sunday night stabbing and was not found by police who combed the area, Chief of Detectives Richard Nicastro told the Associated Press.

Isenberg was accosted early Sunday morning in the lobby of her apartment, where the assailant robbed her of $12 and then forced her to the roof of the seven-story apartment, according to official reports. The assailant then tried to rape her, and when she resisted, stabbed her nine times, police said.

She died six hours later at a nearby hospital.

Torres did not know Isenberg personally, but did know his way around the building, police said.

Detective interviews with eyewitnesses revealed that no one left the building following the 1.30 a.m. incident, leading police to believe that the assailant had hid inside, officials added.

Torres had apparently locked himself in the basement of the building for several hours after the Sunday night stabbing and was not found by police who combed the area. Chief of Detectives Richard Nicastro told the Associated Press.

Torres was picked up at his home at 11 a.m. yesterday morning, and was formally arrested at 7.30 p.m. last night, said Sgt. Ed Burns of the New York Police Department.

Burns said police recovered the knife with which Torres allegedly stabbed Isenberg, but officials refused to say whether the weapon was found in Torres Posession.

"The crime started as a robbery, went to an attempted rape, and then became a murder," Burns said.

Isenberg, an aspiring actress who moved to New York to pursue a career in acting, gave police a general description of her assailant before she died during surgery Sunday morning.

Police said Isenberg's description of the assailant was accurate, but was not instrumental in his arrest.

Isenberg a Brookline native and graduate of Lowell House, was active in Harvard theater, and scores of friends from the Harvard acting community attended her Brookline funeral Wednesday.

"I hope they got the right man and I hope he is punished," said Jonathan Marks, literary director of the American Repertory Theatre. "But no amount of punishment can make up for what he's done."