Ex-con charged in 1994 cold-case slaying of NYC mom and daughter
An ex-con who did several stints in state prison was charged Monday with murder in the vicious 1994 cold-case slaying of a Harlem mother and her special needs daughter.
Larry Atkinson, 64, was picked up by the NYPD Bronx Cold Case Squad around 7:30 a.m. for the nearly three-decades-old strangulation deaths of Sarah Roberts, 57, and her 25-year-old daughter, Sharon, police said.
The mom and daughter were found inside their apartment in the Grant Houses public housing complex on Feb. 20, 1994 — but the case remained unsolved until now.
Detectives used DNA evidence from the 28-year-old crime scene to link the murders to the suspected killer — including from cigarette butts and fingernail clippings, police sources said.
Atkinson was dating a home health care aide who cared for Sharon Roberts, who was developmentally disabled — and still lives with the woman, law enforcement sources said.
The aide, Celeste Cornelius, stood by her man on Monday.
“I know he didn’t do it,” she said outside their Harlem apartment. “I don’t want you to misquote me but I know he didn’t do it. I don’t care about the DNA — none of that mess. He didn’t do it.”
Cops found no evidence of forced entry in the sixth-floor apartment after the home attendant made the grisly discovery and called 911, The Post reported at the time.
Sarah Roberts was found on her bed and her daughter was on the floor with “a woolen stocking wrapped around her neck,” cops said in 1994.
Police said a cassette video recorder and several hundred dollars in cash were stolen.
Neighbors said Sarah Roberts suffered from emphysema.
It’s unclear why Atkinson allegedly killed the pair or how he got into their apartment at the time.
The career criminal has a total of 28 prior arrests and served prison time on five separate state convictions, the NYPD said.
His time behind bars dates to 1985, when he was sentenced to two years in prison on an assault conviction and was paroled in 1987, online state records show
Atkinson, who also did state time on assault, drug and attempted robbery raps, was last paroled in 2013 after serving another two years on an attempted drug sale conviction, according to the records.
The accused killer, who is apparently ill with cancer, was taken to a hospital following his arrest and later treated and released.
Neighbor Juliette Wilson, 84, said Atkinson and Cornelius have lived together in the building for at least 20 years, describing him as a heavy-set man who uses a walker.
“He’s a nice guy. They don’t fight about anything,” she said, adding, “This whole thing is surprising to me.”
Atkinson was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on two counts of murder Monday.
