NOTORIOUS MURDERS > TIMELESS CLASSICS

A Death Bed Accusation

By Kristal Hawkins

A Death-Bed Accusation

"Mike did it," the dying woman whispered.

Nimzay Aponte, 23, lay in the emergency room of Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx. She'd been rushed there after being stabbed in a park on her lunch break.

Aponte summoned her remaining strength and managed to whisper to the 40^th Precinct cops at her bedside, "Mike did it."

If investigators have pieced this together properly—and it looks like an open-and-shut case—this murder was an Internet dating tragedy.

Raymond Dennis, 35, used the name "Mike" on Local-Hookupz.com, a New York-area Internet dating site. The Bronx resident is a convicted felon, with multiple arrests and convictions on drug charges.

In October 2008, Dennis pleaded guilty to an assault charge and spent four months in jail. He'd punched a woman in the face, hard enough that blood gushed from her mouth. The year before, he had pleaded guilty to harassment charges for threatening his ex-wife Rashida Dunne. Dunne had already filed an order of protection against him, but such measures, hard enough to set up, are almost impossible to enforce.

Out of jail and with those women off-limits, Dennis turned to Internet dating. He chose Local-Hookupz.com. As its name declares, this isn't one of those sites that uses extensive, ostensibly scientific questionnaires to match couples based on their personalities and cherished beliefs; it's about hooking up.

Aponte wasn't looking for anything too serious; just a few dates, maybe a new boyfriend. Dennis, it seems, was just looking for trouble.

 

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1. A Death Bed Accusation
2. Jobs And Dating: No Walk In The Park
3. An Easy Case
4. Sources