Multiple new developments were released by investigators regarding a brutally violent cold case killing on Staten Island that dates back more than 30 years.
Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon said at a Tuesday press conference that the victim, now identified as Christine Belusko, was hit more than a dozen times with a hammer and then was set on fire before she was found dead in 1991.
Her body was found in a vacant lot in the Ocean Breeze area a day after she was killed, according to investigators. Belusko lived in Morris County, New Jersey, at the time of her death.
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Her main identifying feature was a scorpion tattoo, but authorities were not able to positively identify her until they could access her DNA to trace her genealogy.
Police have since located and interviewed her brother, but perhaps more importantly, have learned she had a 2-year-old daughter at the time of her death. That daughter, who would now be 34 years old, is named Christa Nicole — and they are looking to find her, law enforcement said.
