Stepha Henry Murdered, Man Arrested

Man charged with murder in Stepha Henry’s disappearance
BY TRACY-ANN TAYLOR

The New York City Police Department this week arrested a suspect in the death of Stepha Henry, who has been missing since May 29, 2007.Kendrick Lincoln Williams was arrested on Jan. 15, police said. He was charged with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence, even though Henry’s body has not yet been recovered.Miami-Dade Police spokesman Roy Rutland said a significant amount of blood – which a forensic analysis determined to be Henry’s – was found in Williams’ Acura Integra, leaving police to believe that she is dead.

Henry, 22, and her sister, Shola, were on vacation during the Memorial Day 2007 weekend. The two sisters were staying with their aunt, Carletha Clarke, in Miami Gardens. The arrest came after a team of detectives, including two from Florida, found Williams asleep in a car near a Brooklyn pier, police said. Authorities believe he had been living in the vehicle.

Police said they had forensic evidence, including blood from Henry found in the black sedan that Williams was driving the night Henry disappeared. At a news conference, Jim Loftus, an investigator in the Miami-Dade Police Department, said enough blood was found in the sedan to conclude Henry had been killed.“No one could survive with that loss of blood,” he said. Of the missing body, Loftus said, “We have the hopes of recovering it.”

Henry’s mother, Sylvia Henry, maintained hope Tuesday that her daughter was still alive.“There's a God above, and I will see my daughter,” she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

She told the AP that she “thanked God” when Miami detectives called her Tuesday morning to tell her about the arrest.

Authorities said Williams and Henry were introduced by mutual friends at a barbecue in Miramar, then met later at a nightclub in Sunrise. It was unclear where Williams was living at the time. Henry was last seen on video footage taken at Peppers Cafe in Sunrise in the early hours of May 29, 2007. Video footage shows Henry at the nightclub. She has not been seen or heard from since.

The night before her disappearance, Henry told family members she was getting a ride to the night club from someone in a black Acura. Williams, 32, told investigators that he had borrowed the car and then left the club early without Henry. But, Rutland said, the investigation showed that Williams had purchased the vehicle prior to coming to Florida. He declined to comment on where the car was found.

According to the Miami-Dade police report, Williams was apprehended while he slept inside a vehicle in a parking lot at Canarsie Pier in the Jamaica Bay area of Brooklyn. He was arrested without incident by the New York Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service. The homicide division of the Miami-Dade police department is continuing its investigation. They say Williams will be extradited to Florida to face trial.

Stepha Henry graduated in 2006 with honors from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. She planned to become an attorney focusing on either criminal law or immigration law.

Henry’s mother spent the latter half of 2007 raising the public’s awareness about her daughter’s disappearance by passing out fliers and speaking to the media.