Raad Almansoori person of interest in Denisse Oleas-Arancibia Queens mom murder at NYC hotel arrested in Arizona assaulting a string of women. Suspect was on a string of violent assaults against women. Victim was trying to live the American Dream.
Arizona authorities on Monday brought into custody a person of interest in the killing of a mother inside a NYC hotel room earlier this month.
Raad Almansoori, 26, was arrested by police in Arizona on a separate assault on another woman, according to law enforcement sources.
NYPD detectives want to question him about the death of 38-year-old Queens woman, Denisse Oleas-Arancibia who was found brutally bludgeoned to death, with an iron bar next to her at a lower Soho hotel on Watts st. Charges against him are pending.
Authorities are also eyeing him for similar incidents of violence against women in Arizona, Texas and Florida, sources said.
Oleas-Arancibia, who may have been a sex worker, stayed several nights each month at the SoHo 54 Hotel for about a year leading up to her brutal death.
She was found lying under a blanket next to a broken iron on Feb. 8.
The young mom of two had checked into the hotel at 2:14 p.m. the day before wearing a ‘distinct’ pair of leggings that surveillance footage later captured a man leaving the hotel wearing, police said.
‘We have video of the woman arriving at the location, wearing a distinct pair of leggings and later on we have a male leaving the hotel wearing the same leggings and we also have a pair of male pants in the hotel room. There was blood all over the pants,’ NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.
Surveillance showed the suspect walking on a sidewalk near the hotel wearing light-colored leggings, a tan jacket and a dark hoodie and beanie.
String of violent assaults against women
Almansoori was taken into custody after police say he stabbed a woman at a fast food restaurant in the city of Surprise.
Police had responded to a McDonald’s restaurant in the city and found a woman stabbed multiple times, AZ Family reported.
Almansoori was arrested shortly after he tried to flee in a stolen car and admitted while in custody to an earlier stabbing a few days prior on Phoenix.
In that incident, a woman was stabbed when a man attempted to steal her car at knifepoint.
Almansoori was booked into the Maricopa County jail on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and theft in connection with the Surprise incident.
He was also charged with robbery, assault, theft and criminal damage in the separate Phoenix investigation. He is being held without bond.
While in custody, Almansoori is also said to have told officers about attacks in Florida and the one in New York City – which authorities believe may have been the murder of Oleas-Arancibia.
‘Do Not Disturb’
Police said last week that they had been using ‘extensive video’ to track down the person of interest in the death of Oleas-Arancibia.
Sources had previously told DailyMail.com that Oleas-Arancibia was a sex worker, having been spotted days before her death on the streets of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.
A spokesman for the city medical examiner said Oleas-Arancibia died of compression to her neck and blunt head trauma.
She was unconscious and unresponsive when authorities arrived on scene. She sustained significant head trauma and was pronounced dead by EMS.
Her body was found when wellness calls were made to the front desk throughout the evening for her.
It was also reported that one employee did walk into her room, despite a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the handle, and left after seeing her on the floor under a blanket.
Oleas-Arancibia had been living with her 18-year-old Edwin Cevallos, and her nephew in an apartment in Queens.
At what cost the American Dream?
While the teen conceded not knowing his mother’s occupation, the son said she was ‘always working for us to give us the best life in this country.’
‘She always had money to cover anything in the house,’ the son previously told the nypost. ‘She didn’t owe no money to anybody.’
The 18-year-old was waiting to meet her Thursday morning and phoned the police when he still didn’t see her at 1 pm. The last time he saw her was Wednesday morning, when she cooked him breakfast and paid a barber for his haircut. Oleas-Arancibia told her son that she loved him as he left for school that day.
Cevallos said the mom worked tirelessly to achieve the American Dream and provide a better life for her children.
According to her son, Oleas-Arancibia appeared nervous in the days leading up to her death.
‘In the week (before) she was like, sad,’ Cevallos said. ‘She was so nervous and she was worried.’
Oleas-Arancibia had moved to New York from Ecuador. She’d been living with Cevallos and a nephew while her parents and a younger son stayed in South America.
‘She was always happy and having fun,’ Cevallos said. ‘I can’t believe this happened.’
SoHo 45, formerly known as the Hampton Inn, advertises rooms for around $110 a night on its website.
