Naples man arrested in NYC murder case tied to second killing

NAPLES, Fla. A Naples man arrested Tuesday in connection to a cold case New York City murder is also linked to a 2005 killing of a woman in Yonkers, New York.

Investigators were able to tie Christopher Gonzalez, 36, to the December 2000 death of 19-year-old Dora DeValle after submitting DNA to a database in February, police said. Gonzalez was fingerprinted after an unrelated arrest in April of this year, and those fingerprints were submitted in May, leading to the match.

MORE: Man accused of New York City murder arrested in Naples

Both victims were raped and strangled, police said. The identity of the second victim has not been released.

Former Federal Prosecutor Doug Malloy believes this case proves DNA databases can help solve crimes, even after so many years.

“I do consider it a win,” Malloy said.

Gonzalez worked the overnight stocking shift at the Toys”R”Us on Airport Pulling Road and passed a background check before being hired, the store supervisor said.

Malloy explained some background check services don’t have access to sealed documents.

“I think those businesses make a good faith effort to do everything to find out, but there are reasons and specifically in this case there were reasons why they did not appear right away,” Malloy said.

WINK News reporter Nicole Valdes has more details:

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