Johnny Amaro, 49, couldn’t make up his mind on the morning of September 1 whether to throw himself bodily off the bridge which connects Kingston to Rhinecliff. The morning was cloudy and according to a police officer at the scene Amaro appeared to be covered in blood.
About five miles away, between Route 9W and the Esopus Creek, the body of a female lay, not yet discovered, in a patch of woods off Eastern Parkway.
The bridge had been blocked off at both ends, The morning commute was snarled. Two bystanders and assorted state and local police attempted to coax Amaro away from the edge.
After a time the distraught man surrendered himself into custody.
The body in the wooded area was just a half-mile from Amaro’s house.
Shortly after, at 8:40 a.m., the deceased body of Maria L. “Lucy” Lemus was discovered. Her throat had been cut.
Processed by the Ulster police department and arraigned before a town justice, Amaro was the muder suspect. At the conclusion of an additional preliminary hearing, town judge Marsha Weiss had heard sufficient evidence to charge Amaro with felony murder.
During the preliminary hearing, Ulster police sergeant Robert Crane testified as to the words spoken by Amaro that morning on the bridge. “I think I hurt Lucy,” along with, “I can’t believe it,”
Amaro now sits in an Ulster County jail cell and can post no bail.
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