Police: It Could Have Been the Rose Street Murder All Over Again

Before charging a city man with kidnapping Tuesday, Danbury Police received two 911 calls about the incident.

First, the woman who would later that day be kidnapped, called Danbury Police 911 Tuesday morning to say Luis Yanez was at her workplace in Waterbury. She didn't know what to do. She told 911 she had a court restraining order against him, but if she told her boss about it, she'd get fired. If the Danbury police or Waterbury police showed up at work, she'd be fired. 

The woman told 911 Yanez talked to her and told her he was working there and he'd deal with her later.

The 911 responder told her to drive immediately to the Danbury Police Department when she left work.

The victim drove home, picked up her one-year-old son and climbed back into her car to drive to the police station. Yanez jumped in the passenger door at that moment and the couple struggled.

Yanez pulled a knife out and told her to drive to the cemetery, said Training Officer Michael Georgoulis, a 17-year veteran of the Danbury force, who helped manage the crime scene and arrest Tuesday.

Sometime in the next few seconds while driving from Osborne Street to the Wooster Cemetery, the victim called 911, and said she was being forced to go to the cemetery near the hospital at knifepoint. 

"Pretty much everybody responded," Georgoulis said, Special Investigations, Special Victims Unit, Patrol, Detectives. The Main Street Police Headquarters emptied.

"It gave us a huge amount of resources on the scene," Georgoulis said, and that allowed the department to cordon off downtown Danbury back a few blocks from the cemetery. Officers were waiting on Rowen Street, Balmforth, Hayestown and other streets.

A patrol officer driving on Ellsworth Avenue couldn't pull into the cemetery from Ellsworth because all the gates were closed. He saw a woman inside the cemetery standing by a car with a baby in her hands. He parked the cruiser and ran in.

Within a few minutes Detective Dan Trompetta, Georgoulis and Ralph Anderson, the patrol officer, were talking to the victim. They learned the victim and Yanez had struggled after he realized she made a 911 call. She clung to him when he tried to run. He dragged her across the hood of the car. To escape, he shrugged off his shirt. 

"She didn't speak any English, but we figured out she was the victim and she'd been brought there at knife point. He was out there running without a shirt," Georgoulis said. "It was Rose Street all over again."

On April 20, 2006, Georgoulis was the first officer to respond to 61 Rose St., where Julio Morquecho stabbed his estranged wife Maria Chulca to death after she left work and returned home. The similarities between Tuesday and Rose Street don't end there. Morquecho had also visited his wife at work the day before. Morquecho was later convicted of that murder.

Staking out Rowen Street, Officer Christina Buonocore caught sight of Yanez on the hillside that drops from the cemetery to a small stream behind Rowen Street. 

Officer Utter responded to Rowen Street, ran up the hill and captured Yanez. 

Luis Yanez, who lived in Connecticut for nine years, was charged with two counts of kidnapping, unlawful restraint, risk of injury to a minor, violation of a protective order, stalking, assault and threatening in Danbury Tuesday night.
Yanez, who is being held on a $100,000 bond and a federal detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was arraigned in Danbury Superior Court Wednesday. Yanez has lived in Connecticut for nine years, having come from Ecuador. He works as a laborer.