Man charged with murder in deaths of 2 women at Brooklyn, Manhattan hotels

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Charges have been filed against the man police arrested in connection with the drug-related deaths of two women at New York City hotels.

The New York City Police Department said 36-year-old Joseph Danclair has been charged with murder. He was arrested in at a friend's apartment in Kips Bay at about 10 p.m. Thursday. Detectives received a tip that he was being treated for a leg injury at nearby Beth Israel Medical Center, and when he arrived at his friend's apartment, he was using crutches.

Danclair was wanted for questioning in the deaths of two women, 34-year-old Chrissy Bevelaqua and 43-year-old Antoniette Marin.

Bevelaqua was found dead inside a room at the Bushwick Hotel in Brooklyn on July 23. Marin was found dead inside a room at the Manhattan Broadway Hotel Sept. 8. According to authorities, both women appeared have been strangled, although the manner of death is still pending by the medical examiner.

During extensive questioning Friday, police said Danclair told detectives Marin died after smoking pot and doing cocaine. He told them he had sex with her, she fell asleep on a couch and he could not wake her up.

As a result, Danclair was charged in Marin's death, with charges pending in Bevelaqua's death.

During both hotel stays, police said that when someone from the hotel knocked on the door because time was up, someone inside cracked opened the door and handed cash through the opening, without ever showing his face. Although, in Marin's case, police said Danclair was captured on surveillance video checking in with her and leaving the hotel alone. At the time of his arrest, police said Danclair was wearing the same belt he was wearing in the surveillance video recovered from the hotel.

Detectives also questioned Danclair about at least two unsolved rape cases. One rape occurred in an abandoned building in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Other unsolved crimes are also being reexamined, too, including an unsolved rape in a Manhattan hotel room.

No charges were immediately filed in any of those cases.

Danclair has 28 arrests on his criminal record, mostly for drugs, but also for robbery and kidnapping.