Valerie Rosario Lower East Side NYC woman lures date where she tortures and holds him hostage for $100,000 ransom before his rescue.
The date from hell has finally arrived… A NYC woman has been accused of duping an online date, luring her unsuspecting victim whom she met on social media to her Lower East Side home, where she proceeded to torture the man and hold him hostage, while demanding the victim’s family pay a $100K ransom for his release.
Valerie Rosario, 22, is alleged to have deliberately lured the unsuspecting 24-year-old man over to her apartment for the sadistic plot to be carried out with the assistance of others earlier this month.
The torture hostage plot involved putting the victim in the bath where he was sprayed with flammable liquids before being set alight, and tortured with knife blades.
Rosario allegedly set up the scheme on Instagram and convinced the ‘complete stranger’ to come to an address in Marble Hill at 1am on February 7 according to the nypost.
Rosario according to prosecutors allegedly picked out the victim after noticing that the un-named 24 year old would often flash money on his own personal Instagram account, and suggested they hook-up.
Conwoman who set up sadistic extortion plot
The hook up quicky devolved into the date from hell (and you thought your first date was a disaster…) as the unsuspecting man came to be tied up and gagged while his kidnappers forced him to call his brother to come up with $100,000 in ransom money to secure his release, Manhattan prosecutors alleged earlier this week.
Luckily for the man, police were able to track down the victim about 24 hours later, where they discovered the victim tied up in the back of a van and barely breathing, according to the nypost.
Prosecutors described Rosario as a conwoman while providing details of the harrowing incident which all took place early last month.
The man arrived at the address on Marble Hill Avenue in the Bronx. just on 1am, anticipating a romantic rendezvous. Instead the man found himself in the company of Rosario and a group of three men, who pistol whipped the victim as he entered the apartment, according to court documents.
Rosario, together with the men are then alleged to have stripped the man, ‘placed him in a bathtub, poured flammable substances on him, and burned him with a flame’ all over his body, charging document stated.
The victim was also tortured with a knife and struck on his ‘legs, back and body,’ according to court documents.
‘After multiple hours of torture,’ the kidnappers moved the man to a different location in order for him to make a FaceTime call to his brother later in the afternoon.
Rising violent crime in NYC
His sibling was able to see him being cut by a knife, while a demand for ransom money was made by other group members, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Kluger claimed in Manhattan Criminal Court.
‘Give us one hundred thousand dollars or we will kill him,’ the kidnapper told the man’s horrified brother.
One of the alleged accomplices, Javier Vargas, was finally tracked down to a Queens address where he was found to be sitting outside in a van. Found in the van was a knife thought to be used on the victim.
The victim was discovered unconscious and ‘barely breathing,’ charging documents stated.
He had been ‘wrapped in a blanket with tape covering his mouth,’ the complaint states.
The man was taken to hospital where he was treated for multiple burns and stab wounds on his face, body, back and legs, according to the complaint.
Upon her arrest, Rosario was charged with attempted murder, extortion and kidnapping.
Rosario remains held without bail.
The incident follows a major spike in violent crime in NYC. For the month of January 2022, New York City recorded a 38.5% increase in overall index crime compared with January 2021 (9,566 v. 6,905). Every major index crime category saw an increase for the month of January 2022 with the exception of murder, which fell by 15.2% (28 v. 33). Robbery increased by 33.1% (1,251 v. 940), and grand larceny increased by 58.1% (4,047 v. 2,559). Citywide shooting incidents increased by 31.6% (100 v. 76) in January 2022 compared with the same period last year.
