In late February 2005, the dismembered body parts of 19-year-old Rashawn Brazell were found in garbage bags strewn throughout the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

borough of

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

after he disappeared from his home in the

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...

neighborhood. He had left in the morning of February 14 to meet his accountant and then meet his mother for lunch in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. At 7:30 that morning, an unknown person rang the apartment building's security buzzer and Brazell went down to meet him. According to other witnesses, Brazell met a man outside his Brooklyn apartment and the two men entered the subway together at the Gates Avenue station. Witnesses believe the two exited at the

Nostrand Avenue South end in Sheepshead Bay Nostrand Avenue () is a major street in Brooklyn, New York, that runs for north from Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay to Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg, where it continues as Lee Avenue. It occupies the position o ...

station in Bedford–Stuyvesant a short time later. Brazell was never seen alive again.

Discovery of body

On February 17 a male torso, legs and one arm were found inside of double-bagged blue and black trash bags in an A line subway tunnel between the Nostrand Avenue and Franklin Avenue stations. The bags had been left between the southbound tracks and the tunnel wall, near an emergency exit with two flights of stairs leading to the street above. A black and beige, “Rooster” tool bag with the victim’s blood on the tools inside was found a few feet away. This bag was one of only 15 made as prototypes and sold exclusively to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2001, which, taken together with the location of the remains, led police to believe that the culprit was someone highly familiar with the subway tunnels. Fingerprinting positively identified the remains as Rashawn Brazell. On February 23 and 24 an arm and hand, also identified as Brazell's, were found inside of double-bagged blue and black trash bags at the Humboldt Street recycling plant in

Greenpoint, Brooklyn Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn� ...

. Rashawn's head was never found. The

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

searched around the country for clues; ''

America's Most Wanted ''America's Most Wanted'' (often abbreviated as ''AMW'') is an American television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Alternative Entertainment division of Fox Corporation. At the time of i ...

'' profiled the case and ran the segment several times.AMW.com , Unknown Rashawn Brazell Killer - Fugitive

Investigation and aftermath

A break in the case came in 2017. The police arrested Kwauhuru Govan, Brazell's cousin and former neighbor, who had a criminal history predating 2005; he had since moved to Florida and was imprisoned there in 2014 on an

armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

conviction. Govan was charged with Brazell's murder. After DNA linked him to another unsolved Brooklyn homicide, he was extradited to New York and charged with the killing of Sharabia Thomas. Govan was convicted of Thomas' murder in 2018. Detectives who asked Govan about the Brazell case claim that he made false and evasive statements. They charged him with the crime on that basis and other evidence, and they suspect he might be a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brazell, Rashawn 2000s missing person cases 2005 in New York City 2005 murders in the United States Deaths by person in New York City February 2005 crimes in the United States Formerly missing people Missing person cases in New York City Unsolved murders in the United States History of Brooklyn

Discovery of body

Investigation and aftermath

See also

References

External links