Charges were pending, he said. Pabon's attorney, Mario Gallucci, didn't immediately return a telephone message Friday Browne said earlier Friday that DNA evidence had linked the elevator operator to the killing of Eridania Rodriguez, whose body was found with a gold crucifix taped to her mouth in the Manhattan skyscraper where she worked.
Pabon voluntarily submitted to DNA testing during questioning after Rodriguez' body was found July 11, Browne said. Blood leaking from the ventilation shaft led police to the body at 2 Rector St., a 26-story office tower a few hundred feet from ground zero.
The DNA taken from Pabon is linked to material found underneath Rodriguez' fingernails, police said.
Rodriguez disappeared on July 7 in the middle of her shift at the 26-story office building at the office tower.
The case touched off an exhaustive four-day search by police and raised questions about how she could have vanished from the high-security skyscraper.
Like most office towers in the financial district, this one got enhanced security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Guards staff the lobby 24 hours a day, and cameras cover every exit.
The cameras recorded Rodriguez, 46, when she turned up for work at 5 p.m. and again as she moved around the building, but they never showed her leave. Her last appearance on tape was about 7 p.m. in an elevator lobby.
Police swept through the building with search dogs in the following days, sure that Rodriguez couldn't have walked out alive. Finally, they discovered blood leaking from the ventilation shaft; her body was stuffed inside.
An autopsy determined she had been asphyxiated by the tape.
Rodriguez was born in the Dominican Republic but lived in Manhattan for decades. She was married with several children.
