'Charmer' Accused Of Murdering NYC Nurse He Met On Tinder, Engaging In ‘Sexual Conduct With Dead Body’: Police
Apr. 4 2022, Published 11:19 a.m. ET
A New York City nurse hoping to meet someone special instead went on a Tinder date with a man from Connecticut who killed her and then had sexual contact with her body, authorities said.
Police charged Danueal Drayton, 31, on April 1 with murder, sexual misconduct, grand larceny and other crimes in connection to the July 2018 death of 29-year-old Samantha Stewart, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced.
Following the date, the pair went back to Stewart’s home, where Drayton allegedly fatally beat and strangled Stewart and then had “sexual conduct with the dead body,” NBC News reported, citing an indictment.
Drayton allegedly stole the victim’s driver’s license as well as a credit card, which he used to charge a fight to Los Angeles, police said.
A week after Stewart’s murder, NYPD detectives located Drayton in a North Hollywood apartment with a female captive, who claimed he had raped her, according to law enforcement in California, The New York Times reported.
Police in L.A. held Drayton on rape charges and only recently extradited him to New York.
Weeks earlier, a judge in the unrelated case allowed Drayton to go free on $2,000 bail following a paperwork mix-up that resulted in the court not knowing Drayton had an extensive criminal history in Connecticut, the publication reported.
Queens D.A. Katz said Stewart’s family “deserves justice” after a nearly four-year wait.
“This was a brutal crime that makes every person using a dating app fearful,” she said. “The victim was duped into going out on a date with the defendant, who played a charmer online but was in fact an alleged sexual predator.”
If found guilty of the charges against him, Drayton could be sentenced to up to 25 years to life behind bars, according to NBC News.
