Man Suspected In Woman's Death, Abandoning Daughter At Port Authority Arrested
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Authorities have arrested the father of a 5-year-old girl who was found abandoned at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
The little girl led authorities to the body of her mother in Connecticut, prompting a multi-state manhunt for her father, Elmer Gomez Ruono.
Ruono, 32, was arrested walking down Clay Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at around 1 p.m. Friday by members of the NYPD and U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force.
"I'm not going to tell how we got him, but we got him," NYPD Detective Robert Boyce said. "He's in custody right now. We will put him in for other authorities, and either the Stamford police or the Port Authority police will prosecute from there.
There was no immediate word of charges.
A Port Authority police officer passing by saw the girl her all by herself on Monday. The girl told him her daddy instructed her to "wait here" but never returned.
She gave the officer her address, a home on Courtland Avenue in Stamford, Conn., and that led police to a gruesome discovery.
"We went there on a wellness check and when we got there, we found a female deceased inside the apartment, about 30 years old," said Tom Barcello with the Stamford Police Department.
Police said the dead woman was the girl's mother.
Stamford police said the young girl is in protective custody.