Girl Charged In N.Y. Killing -- Victim Mutilated, Body Dumped In Central Park Lake

NEW YORK - The teenage daughter of a Manhattan millionaire has been accused of mutilating a man before dumping him in the Central Park lake.

Chubby, teary-eyed Daphne Abdela, 15, was held without bail after a prosecutor outlined her alleged part in "an incredibly brutal murder."

The girl's lawyer said she was "a sympathetic individual charged with a heinous crime" she did not commit.

Abdela, a privileged but troubled teenager, was sent to the Spofford Juvenile Center in the Bronx on two charges of murder and two charges of robbery in the Friday morning attack on Michael McMorrow, 44, a Manhattan real-estate agent who had been drinking with Abdela and her boyfriend, Christopher Vasquez, 15.

They "tried to conceal the identity of the victim by burning his identification papers and by attempting to cut off his hands," said Assistant District Attorney Carolyn Streicher.

The teenager was brought into Manhattan Criminal Court Saturday flanked by two detectives. Abdela, who lives in the fabled Majestic apartment house overlooking the crime scene, had spent the night in the station house.

Her hands were cuffed. Her face was impassive.

Her father, Angelo Abdela, a vice president of CPC International, a food conglomerate, and her mother, Catherine, were in the courtroom for the hearing before State Supreme Court Justice Ira Beal.

Abdela shook her head in denial as Streicher recounted the horrific details.

Abdela glanced at her parents once more before being led away.

"She and her parents are distraught," said lawyer George Weinbaum. "Ultimately when all the facts come out she will be exonerated."

Meanwhile, Vasquez, a former altar boy and Boy Scout who attends a private school, was undergoing psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital.

Vasquez, with a deep gash on his right cheek and nursing a bandaged left hand, had been muttering suicidal remarks as he sat on a bench in the arraignment.

His lawyer said anti-depressants that Vasquez was taking were wearing off.

Detectives took the slight, clean-cut, dark-haired boy to the hospital where he is expected to be examined by a psychologist tomorrow.

The youngsters and McMorrow knew each other from partying and in-line skating in the park, authorities said.

On Thursday night, the three sat by the lake drinking, and the party turned gruesome, reportedly because McMorrow made a pass at Abdela.

Vasquez became enraged and allegedly attacked McMorrow.

The youngsters skated back to the Majestic and were washing off blood in a laundry room off the lobby. Angelo Abdela had called 911 at 12:49 a.m. to report his daughter missing.

Responding police officers were directed to the room, where they saw the bloody youngsters still wearing their skates.

They told the officers they had been hurt in an in-line skating accident. The officers left.

Police inspector Richard Seta said the unexpected encounter with the police may have unnerved Abdela. At 1:42 a.m., she called 911 anonymously to report the body in the lake.

Police traced Abdela's call to her apartment. The girl implicated Vasquez, Seta said. Vasquez was arrested at his apartment, where police also found a knife. They had not determined if it was the weapon.

Asked if either teenager showed remorse, Seta said, "They were melancholy."