NEW YORK – Federal agents have issued an arrest detainer against a Pawling man charged with murder and robbery for allegedly strangling a Brewster taxi driver to death on December 1.
Santos Vasquez-Ramirez, 28, who entered the United States illegally from Central America, was arrested by the Putnam Sheriff’s Department for murdering Aurelio Zhunio-Orbez, 66, of Danbury and dumping his body in the Croton Falls Reservoir following a dispute over a taxicab fare.
The body of the 66-year-old Ecuadorian native was found floating in the reservoir in southern Carmel by a fisherman one week later, and within days, the Putnam Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said, “Santos Vasquez Ramirez should’ve never been in our country in the first place and provided the opportunity to gruesomely take the life of Aurelio Zhunio-Orbez. Open border policies have deadly consequences.”
According to McLaughlin, Vasquez-Ramirez illegally entered the country in 2013 and was later released. An immigration judge issued him a final order of removal in early 2016.
Vasquez Ramirez will now be transferred to federal custody.
McLaughlin said, “ICE lodged an arrest detainer with the sheriff’s department to ensure this criminal illegal alien is never allowed back into American neighborhoods.”
The suspect is currently held at the Putnam Correctional Facility without bail.
Putnam Sheriff Brian Hess said Vasquez-Ramirez confessed to investigators from his department indicating he had been a passenger of Zhunio Orbez’s in the past and the homicide occurred because of a dispute over the taxi fare.
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