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Victim Was Strangled, Smothered by Boyfriend
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 9, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 9, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The police have charged Michael Cordero in the murder of his girlfriend, Boitumelo McCallum. Police sources tell the Daily News and Post that Cordero admitted to confronting McCallum on Friday. From the Post:
Cordero told cops he visited McCallum, 20, a day after she threw a party there without inviting him, authorities said. After his arrival, the two lay on her bed and watched a movie he had brought - but Cordero was in a foul mood, sources said.
When McCallum kept asking, "What's the matter?" Cordero mentioned the party and his belief that the Mills College junior slept with another man during it.
Asked by cops how he knew that, Cordero told them, "She didn't tell me, but I know how she is."
Then Cordero strangled 20-year-old McCallum on the bed. He also allegedly punched her in the face, causing a broken nose, and then smothered her with a towel. Finally, he wrapped her body in a sheet. The source said to the News, "He does all this, and now he's sorry. He says he didn't mean to do it - that it was in the heat of an argument." McCallum's body wasn't discovered until Sunday night.
Cordero was apprehended on Tuesday night, after trying to kill himself on the roof of his apartment building at the Amsterdam Houses on the Upper West Side. A neighbor overheard Cordero saying he was sorry, and his brother-in-law responded "I can't forgive you." After Cordero silt his wrists, he tried to escape but family members chased after him. The Sun reports that passers-by called 911 when they saw the chase, and the police found Cordero at the Western Beef on West End and 62nd.
A former dorm mate of McCallum's from Mills College tells the NY Times that friends warned her that Cordero, who moved to California to be closer with her in March, was bad news. Julie Parker said they called him McCallum's "stalker from New York", “He was obsessed with her. We never took it seriously and we should have.”
Cordero is currently at Bellevue on suicide watch. He will be arraigned for second-degree murder. McCallum's parents Teboho Mojo and Robert McCallum, both professors at NYU, are now in New York and were at the South African Consulate yesterda. McCallum will be buried in South Africa.
Tagged
Boitumelo McCallum
california
college
crime
daily news
friends
law
Mills College
murder
new york
news
ny times
NYU
police
South Africa
South African
stalker
suicide
The Police
Upper West
Upper West Side
west end
west side
western beef
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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