{"id":101612,"date":"2026-01-15T21:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101612\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:34:20","slug":"killer-convict-now-charged-in-cold-case-1998-queens-motel-strangulation-of-jane-doe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101612\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer convict now charged in cold case 1998 Queens motel strangulation of Jane Doe"},"content":{"rendered":"

A convicted killer was pulled from an upstate prison Thursday and charged with the cold case strangulation of a woman in a Queens hotel<\/a> nearly 30 years ago, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Jose Velasquez, 59, was hauled into Queens Criminal Supreme Court to face new murder charges for allegedly strangling a woman at the Turf Club Motor Inn<\/a>, a now-shuttered notorious hot sheets hotel in Astoria. A new round of DNA testing led to the conviction, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor almost three decades, this female victim remained unidentified and without justice, but she was never forgotten,\u201d Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. \u201cThe Cold Case Unit I created when I first took office exists for this very reason: to ensure that justice is not denied by time or anonymity \u2026 Every victim matters, and we are committed to holding offenders accountable, no matter how long it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decomposing body of the victim, believed to be a prostitute, was found under a mattress and inside the bed frame in one the motel\u2019s 27 rooms on Jan. 12, 1998. She had a scarf tied tightly around her neck.<\/p>\n

A judge a month later ordered the hotel on Broadway and 14th St. shut down. The motel is now a Super 8.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Turf Club Motor Inn at Broadway and 14th St. in Astoria, Queens, is pictured in 1999. (Shannon Stapleton for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Velasquez, according to sources and records, has been serving a 25-year-to-life sentence in prison since 2020 for a murder that happened just 14 months after the Turf Club Motor Inn slaying.<\/p>\n

The 1999 victim was found in a tub at the Lincoln Place Hotel<\/a> on Lincoln Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn, sources said.\u00a0 That hotel is another now-shuttered prostitution hot spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Queens case, investigators stored evidence including the victim\u2019s underwear and scrapings and clippings of her fingernails.<\/p>\n

The DNA was retested in May 2023 the city Medical Examiner linked the DNA under the victim\u2019s fingernails and on her underwear to Velasquez, authorities say.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn article of clothing found at the scene in 1998. (Queens DA)<\/p>\n

Velasquez, who used to live in Astoria, was interviewed by cops in January 2025 but denied ever having been to the Turf Club Motor Inn. He was indicted by a grand jury on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Velasquez was sent back to prison Thursday after his arraignment on the new charges. He is due back in court in the new case on March 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A convicted killer was pulled from an upstate prison Thursday and charged with the cold case strangulation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-101612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-county","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-county","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-crime","19":"tag-queens","20":"tag-queens-headlines","21":"tag-queens-news","22":"tag-sub-county-region"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}