Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 8, 1993                   TAG: 9305080006
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PASSAIC,N.J.                                LENGTH: Medium

POLICE SHOCKED AFTER STALKING, KILLING OF GIRL, 7

They found Divina Genao's battered body on a bed and arrested a recently paroled man on charges of rape and murder.

The man, identified as 40-year-old Conrad Jeffrey, lunged at the officers as they burst in.

The girl lay face down, naked, bound and gagged, said Passaic County Prosecutor Ronald Fava.

Jeffrey, who neighbors said stalked children after moving to the area about five weeks ago, was being held Friday in the Passaic County Jail on $1 million bail. He was charged with kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and murder.

The unsuccessful race to save Divina and the nature of the crime shocked police officers, said Sgt. James Rhoades.

"You have to realize, most of us are married and have families, too," said Rhoades. He said the arresting officers, Detectives Sgt. Howard Simbol and Joseph Patti, were not on duty Friday and would not discuss the case.

Divina's ordeal began as the man challenged her 9-year-old sister, Rosa, and other children to a race. He promised the winner a quarter, Rosa said.

She said a boy named Jose won the race and Jeffrey gave him a quarter. After that, Jeffrey grabbed Divina by the wrists, Rosa said.

"Then he took my sister. I called my sister, but my sister did not listen to me," Rosa said Friday. "He took her and pushed her."

Rosa said she followed them for a time but lost them. She ran to her mother screaming, "I can't find my sister."

Later, an informant told police of Jeffrey's whereabouts in a boarding house. The detectives raced upstairs to Jeffrey's room No. 9, where, they reported later, they heard muffled screams and scuffling.

Fava said no pulse could be detected on the girl and police tried to revive her using cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Police said Jeffrey beat the girl on the face and body, and then strangled her. She was pronounced dead of asphyxiation at General Hospital Center at Passaic.

Melissa Sisco, who lives around the corner from the Genaos in a neighborhood of apartment buildings, schools and homes, said Jeffrey had stalked her 14-year-old daughter for several weeks.

She said he forced his way into her apartment five hours before Divina died, and two of her five children were home. A friend who had come by earlier to check on the children told Jeffrey to leave, she said.

"He would have killed both of them, for sure," Sisco said.

Sisco said Jeffrey tried to ingratiate himself with children by telling them he was forming a baseball team. He even went to Little League games coached by Sisco's brother-in-law, she said.

Jeffrey was paroled on March 25 from a state prison after serving 2 1/2 years of a five-year sentence on charges stemming from abducting a 14-year-old girl at knife point in 1990.

Jeffrey's criminal history dates to 1971 when he was convicted of robbery and possession of a weapon in Newark.

"They should never have allowed him to get out of jail. Now it's become worse," said Divina's mother, Joselin Genao, 25, who came to the United States five years ago from the Dominican Republic.

Keywords:
FATALITY