Crime & Safety
Shocking Harlem Double Murder Ends In Arrest 30 Years Later: NYPD
Larry Atkinson, 64, stands accused of murdering a mother and her special needs daughter in 1994, according to police and reports.
HARLEM, NY — An arrest was made Monday nearly 30 years after a shocking double murder claimed the lives of a Harlem woman and her special-needs daughter, both found strangled by oxygen machine tubing, according to police and reports.
Larry Atkinson, 64, was charged with two counts of murder in connection to the deaths of Sarah Roberts, 57, and her daughter Sharon Roberts, 27, in their Harlem apartment in 1994, police said.
The two women were found strangled to death with the tubing of the daughter's oxygen machine inside their Grant Houses home at 550 W. 125th St. on Feb. 20, 1994, according to police and a Daily News report.
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Atkinson was dating the daughter's home health-aid at the time, the Daily News reported.
DNA compiled at the scene in 1994 didn't link to any suspect, but when the case got reexamined in 2022, biological evidence pointed to Atkinson, the Daily News reported.
Find out what's happening in Harlemfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Atkinson has three aliases and 28 prior arrests, the Daily News added.
NYPD did not provide a motive for the killings.
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