Man's Murder May Be Tied To Kidnapping Of Brother

NEW YORK - A reputed Harlem crack dealer may have been murdered while trying to negotiate the return of his kidnapped 12-year-old brother, whose severed finger accompanied a ransom demand, police sources said yesterday.

The body of Richard Thomas Porter, 25, was found in the Bronx early Thursday. He had been shot several times, but investigators who found identification and $2,239.78 on the body discounted robbery as a motive.

Porter, reputedly a mid-level drug dealer who controlled several street dealers in Harlem, had refused to cooperate with police investigating his brother's kidnapping, the sources said.

Porter's brother, William, was abducted Dec. 5 on his way to school and is still missing, police said. ``There's no indication that we have that this kid was anything more than a schoolboy,'' a source said.

The following day, the family received a call demanding $500,000. Later the same day, a caller asked to speak with Richard Porter and told Porter he would settle for $350,000 for the boy's return.

At 4 p.m. on Dec. 6, the kidnapper told the family to go to a McDonald's restaurant at 125th Street and Broadway and look under the sink in the men's room.

There, a friend of the family found an audio cassette, a 2-inch piece of a finger, believed to belong to William, and two of William's rings in a coffee cup, the sources said.

The family's last contact with the kidnappers was a ransom note Dec. 10.