The mother of a 21-year-old Bensonhurst man whose severed head was found in a Sunset Park garbage depot last November is Making an emotional plea for anyone with information about her son’s death to come foward to police.
"He was a good kid who wouldn't hurt a fly, hard-working. People I didn't know came up to me and told me wonderful things about him. Everyone is suprised and shocked. They didn't believe me when I told them what happened," said the weeping mother of Daniel Rodriguez.
With a bullet lodged in his right temple, the head of Rodriguez popped out of a garbage chamber and rolled out onto the warehouse floor at Empire State Recycling on 110 51st Street on Nov. 30. His torso was found wrapped in plastic and frozen solid in a Staten Island parking lot. Through DNA tests the torso was matched to the head several weeks later. The corpse was not identified, however, until Rodriguez's mother went to the morgue in Manhattan on her own.
The mother, who asked that her name not be used for this report, said she and police are trying to find out where her son was the week before his death.
She saw Daniel last on Nov. 21 and reported to police he was missing on Nov. 26. Daniel was an auto mechanic and lived with his mother, but often stayed at friends' houses or went on road trips to out of state auctions.
"He said he was coming home for Thanksgiving. I had already bought a turkey," she said.
Daniel's body was not identified until Jan. 10 when his mother went to police headquarters in downtown Manhattan and described her son to police.
"I couldn't sleep for two months. I was looking for him. I kept going to the police--nothing--calling people--nothing--looking for two months," she said, crying as she showed pictures of of her smiling well-dressed son. "I had this feeling, I had this uneasiness that he wanted me to find him. I knew he wanted me to find him. I knew he wanted me to find him. He wanted to be found."
While grateful that she was at least able to lay him to rest, the woman, who also has a daughter, says she can't rest until she knows what happened to her son and brings his killer to justice.
"The worst thing is we don't know why. We don’t know who did this. We have no answers. What was this done? Who did this? If it was a car accident or he was sick, at least we would know," she said.
"I want justice for this. This is vicious. He was such a good kid. He never drank--he was always the designated driver."
Anyone with information on this case should call Det. Jose Caban at (718) 965-6336. All calls will be kept confidential and there is $1,000 cash reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the murder.