A suspect has been arrested in connection with the kidnap, rape and murder of a New Jersey woman whose body was found in a lake last week, the New York Post reports.
Authorities on Sunday said Jorge Rios, 33, has been charged with kidnapping, murder and aggravated sexual assault of Carolina Cano, 45, a nanny who was out for a jog when the suspect allegedly attacked her. Prosecutors allege that Rios raped Cano, then strangled her, then drowned her in Jersey City’s Lincoln Park lake.
Cano’s death was officially ruled as “strangulation and water submersion,” according to authorities.
Cano’s body was discovered floating in the lake around 7:30 a.m. last week Sunday, March 24. Cano lived near the park and jogged there every morning before going to work as a nanny, according to an NBC New York interview with her roommate.
“She was a working woman, a good woman,” her roommate said. “She didn’t bother anyone. She was a woman that was always with God, that’s how she lived. She was really a beautiful woman. She had a very beautiful heart.”
Surveillance video shows Cano going into the park alone around 5:45 a.m. She can be seen entering a dark area in an open field and then disappears without re-emerging in any other footage.
Police have stepped up patrols in the park at night since since Cano went missing, according to City Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey.
Community members held a vigil for Cano on Friday at the lake.
“Her murder is shocking and heartbreaking,” organizers of the vigil wrote. “Many of us in the neighborhood would like to gather to stand in solidarity, to demonstrate that we will not let fear rob our neighborhood of this place of joy.”
[Featured Photo: Jorge Rios; Carolina Cabo/Hudson County Prosecutor
