The tenant of a Bronx apartment where severed hands were found in a crock pot — after the dismembered body was discovered burning under a Yonkers bridge — has been identified as the victim, the Daily News has learned.
Lutalo Henderson had been missing since the grisly discovery was made on Aug. 5 — the day after his 46th birthday.
“I’m not OK but I’m staying strong for my family,” his sister posted on Facebook after authorities told her he was the victim.
“I love my brother dearly. Part of me feels missing and I’m angry. I pray they find the person who did this to him. May God have mercy on their soul.”
Henderson’s killer went to great lengths to make identifying the body difficult.
“Whoever did this wanted to try their best to make sure the victim was never identified,” retired NYPD Chief Terry Monahan told NBC New York after the discovery was made.
Emma Seiwell / New York Daily News
Burning body parts found dumped under a Yonkers bridge were traced back to a Bronx apartment where more human remains were discovered.
“The reason anyone would take out teeth, hands and feet from an individual is to prevent identification. Once you remove the hands, you no longer can check fingerprints. You take off the teeth, you can’t check dental records to see who the individual is.”
Police ended nearly two weeks of speculation on Sunday when they confirmed Henderson as the victim of the grisly murder.
“This is a very disturbing situation,” his sister wrote on Facebook. “I would not wish this on my worst enemy.”
Henderson was a history and aliens aficionado who would regale anyone who would listen with the latest piece of trivia he’d gleaned from reading or watching YouTube videos, according to his ex-girlfriend.
“Lutalo was very into UFO stuff. He loved to read about aliens … He didn’t think we were alone,” said Tricia Fortune, 47, who dated Lutalo for two years after meeting on Hinge.
“He loves history,” Fortune added. “He would talk you death about anything he read about.”
Fortune, who kept in contact with Henderson after the pair split up in July 2022, became concerned after he didn’t respond to her messages wishing him a happy birthday.
A friend two days later let her know that body parts had been discovered at his building where they previously lived together.
“I immediately knew something was wrong,” Fortune said. “I reached out to his sister and from then we’ve been dealing with this nightmare.”
“He didn’t deserve what happened to him. Lutalo was a nice guy, funny, very polite. Even my friend who called me that morning, she remembered he was very polite,” she added. “When I was with him I always felt protected. He was a nice guy. This should not have happened to him.”
Henderson posted on LinkedIn 11 months ago that he had started a new job as an audio visual technician.
“My brother was a cool dude, and he did not deserve this,” his sister wrote on Facebook. “No one deserves something like this to ever happen to any of their family members.”
The macabre mystery began shortly after 2 a.m. August 5 under the Oak Street Bridge in Yonkers when firefighters responded to a call about an object on fire.
After they extinguished the flames they made a shocking discovery — a singed corpse with no hands or feet.
“Responding Yonkers Police officers determined that a body had been placed in a shopping cart and apparently set on fire at that location,” Detective Sgt. Frank DiDomizio said in a statement to the Daily News.
Cops quickly recovered video footage that showed two people rolling the body from the nearby Mount Vernon West Metro-North station. Investigators painstakingly traced the trip to an apartment building on Rogers Place near Dawson St., in the South Bronx, about 13 miles from where the first set of remains were found.
As authorities worked to identify the remains Lutolo’s family waited in agony.
Obtained by Daily News
Footage obtained by the Daily News shows two individuals wheeling a cart down the sidewalk near the Bronx apartment building where human remains were found.
“Nothing has been confirmed as of yet!!” his sister wrote on Facebook August 8. I’m trying real hard to stay strong and not flip out!!!”
Surveillance video obtained by the Daily News shows two people rolling the collapsible shopping cart down the block on Rogers Place at 12:16 a.m. August 5 — about two hours before the remains were discovered burning in Yonkers.
The cart is pushed along the sidewalk by a man wearing a baseball cap and a long-sleeved sweatshirt with a cigarette or a pen dangling out of his mouth. He is followed by someone in a bulky hooded sweatshirt.
Aug. 7, 2024: Burning body parts mystery
New York Daily News Front page for Aug. 7, 2024: New “level of gruesome” in Yonkers, Bronx case. Crime scene investigators on Tuesday examine Bronx building where body parts were found after separate body parts were found burning in Yonkers.
Cops believe the two men pushed the cart onto a Metro North train at a stop near the Bronx apartment and rode it seven stops before dumping and burning the body.
Cops executed a search warrant on the Bronx apartment and found a handgun and drug paraphernalia in a bedroom.
They also found a pair of hands soaking in bleach in a slow cooker on the kitchen floor. They also found the victim’s teeth.
A trash bag in the freezer contained at least one human leg.
“I have 34 years working in that building,” the building super said the day after the discovery. “I’ve never seen something like that in this building.”
Henderson often rented out a spare room in his fourth-floor apartment.
“This apartment is two rooms,” the super said. “He rented one room to different people. Every time he brings people from the street.”
The five-story walk-up sits at the corner of 163rd Street, where a mural pays tribute to the late rapper Christopher Rios, known in rap circles and in the Bronx as Big Pun. The site is a popular stop on Bronx hip-hop tours.
Google Maps
Oak Street Bridge in Yonkers.
With Sheetal Banchariya
Originally Published: