Bronx man sentenced to 20 years after stabbing his neighbor to death in 1999

A murder mystery, dating back over two decades in New York City, has been reopened and now solved.

News 12 Staff

Aug 12, 2020, 2:09 AM

Updated 1,515 days ago

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A murder mystery, dating back over two decades in New York City, has been reopened and now solved. 
Elsa Grullon, 56, was found stabbed to death in her fifth-floor apartment. The case went cold until 2016, when Curtis Batchelor was arrested for jumping a turnstile. 
His DNA was taken and that’s when police say they realized he was linked to the stone-cold murder. 
Batchelor pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, accepting a plea in court to 20 years in prison and five years post-release supervision. 
The main piece of evidence police found was Batchelor’s DNA, which matched the semen found on Grullon’s body 21 years ago. 
The two were neighbors and Batchelor lived on the floor below her. 
The Grullon family tells us after all of these years, they finally have a sense of relief knowing justice was served.