19-year-old Rashawn Brazell was a good kid; detectives haven't found anything to link him to nefarious activity.


Around 3:00 a.m. on February 17, 2005, New York City transit workers found two suspicious bags alongside the track at the Nostrand Avenue station in Brooklyn. It would spark the investigation of one of the most gruesome crimes New York has seen.

One of the bags was a black trash bag. Inside it was a blue trash bag, and inside that were the body parts of a young black male.

The other bag was a beige and black tool bag with wheels and an insignia on the side that says "Rooster". Inside this bag the police found blood-stained drill bits and other tools. Police later learned this bag was one of only 15 bags made as a prototype and sold to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2001.

On February 23, 2005, workers at the Humboldt Street recycling plant in New York made another gruesome discovery -- more body parts were found inside a blue trash bag which had been stuffed inside a black trash bag. A day after that, workers at the recycling plant found yet another black trash bag which contained a blue bag of body parts.

The killer had carefully traced the body with a sharp instrument before cutting it apart with an electric chain saw. Every cut was clean and on a joint, indicating the killer had a knowledge of human anatomy. But mysteriously, the head was never found. Without it, the actual cause of death is unknown.

Cops finger printed one of the found hands. The prints matched those of Rashawn Brazell, who was once arrested on a minor marijuana charge. He'd been reported missing on Valentines Day -- three days before the first bag of parts was found. Forensic work confirmed all of the body parts from the three bags belonged to Rashawn.

Police believe the killer placed the body parts in blue plastic bags and then carried the bags of body parts, one at a time, in the beige and black tool bag

Teenager May Have Been Held Prisoner Before Being Killed

Friends and family members describe 19-year-old Rashawn as a "good kid". He worked four jobs and he wanted to be a web page designer or go into the fashion industry. In fact, months before his murder, he actually had a stint in a New York fashion show modeling clothes. Rashawn was gay, but police say there is no indication it was a hate crime. So what could the motive have been?

The medical examiner believes Rashawn was kept alive for two days before he was killed, dismembered and disposed of in the trash bags. The autopsy report shows cuts and stab wounds to the side of Rashawn's torso indicating there may have been some kind of a struggle.

Cops believe the killer may have been a transit worker. "The killer or killers knew the layout. These tracks are two flights down," said New York City Police Detective Anthony Baker. "Which leads me to believe they had some knowledge of the tracks, because nobody really goes to the unknown to dispose of something like that unless they have been there before."

Killer Tries To Dispose Of Body In Trash Bags


The killer tried to hide the body by cutting it up and disposing of it in trash bags.

Police believe the killer placed the body parts in blue plastic bags and then carried the bags of body parts, one at a time, in the beige and black tool bag. They believe the killer then transferred the blue bags into black trash bags in the subway. The killer probably thought the trash inside these bags would be crushed up. However, trash from the subway system is always sorted for recyclable material.

Ray Pierce, a retired New York Police Detective helping to profile the suspect, believes the killer has killed before. "He's had a violent history in the past and this is culminated in this homicide and perhaps other homicides," said Pierce.

Rashawn's family said that on the morning of February 14, 2005, Rashawn was scheduled to meet his accountant and then meet his mother for lunch in Manhattan. At 7:30 that morning, an unknown person rang the apartment building's security buzzer and Rashawn went down to meet them. According to other witnesses, Rashawn met a man outside his Brooklyn, New York apartment and the two men entered the subway together at the Gates Avenue J Line. Witnesses believe the two exited at the Nostrand Avenue A Line in Bedford Stuyvesant a short time later. Rashawn was never seen alive again.

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