22-year-old New York woman charged with attempted murder over allegations she cheated a Tinder date into coming to a property where he was tortured while his family was ordered to pay a $100,000 ransom .
According to the New York Post, 22-year-old Valerie Rosario is alleged to have deliberately lured an unsuspecting 24-year-old man into her apartment to commit a sadistic plot with a group of others.
This included placing the victim in a bath, where he was sprayed with flammable liquids before being set on fire, and tortured with knife blades.
Rosario, who lives on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with her mom and brother, allegedly created an Instagram trap scheme and convinced a “total stranger” to come to an address in Marble Hill in the Bronx at 1:00 a.m. on February 7.
She allegedly chose the victim after she noticed that he often withdraws money to his personal Instagram account and suggested that they sleep.
But the date quickly turned into a hell of a date as the man was tied up and gagged and kidnappers forced him to call his brother for a $100,000 ransom to secure his release, Manhattan prosecutors allege.
Valerie Rosario, 22, allegedly lured a date to an address in the Bronx after spotting the man’s Instagram profile in which he showed money, but it was a trap.
The meeting took place at one in the morning on February 7, but a few minutes after her “date” arrived, three other men beat the man with a gun, tied him up and gagged him.
Incredibly, police were able to track him down after about 24 hours, tied up in the back of a van and barely breathing, according to the New York Post.
There were no further updates on his condition.
Prosecutors described Rosario as a Lower East Side con artist and gave details of a heartbreaking incident that took place early last month.
The man arrived at an address on Marble Hill Avenue in the Bronx. The torture began shortly after one of the three men first hit him with a gun, according to court documents seen by The Post.
Rosario then, along with the men, allegedly stripped the man, “placed him in a bath, doused him with flammable substances and burned him with flames” over his entire body, the indictment says.
The victim was also stabbed and stabbed in the “legs, back and body,” according to court documents.
“After several hours of torture,” the kidnappers moved the man to another location so he could FaceTime his brother later in the afternoon.
According to Assistant District Attorney Andrew Kluger in Manhattan Criminal Court, his brother and sister saw him stabbed while other members of the group demanded a ransom.
“Give us a hundred thousand dollars or we will kill him,” the kidnapper said to the frightened brother of the man.
One of the alleged accomplices, Javier Vargas, was finally tracked down to an address in Queens, where he was found sitting outside in a van.
Court documents seen by The Post detail how a knife was also found inside the van.
Rosarios charged with kidnapping and attempted murder
Throughout the night, the man was allegedly subjected to barbaric torture. He was placed in a bath and then stripped, burned, and stabbed in a flammable liquid.
Rosario is said to live in this Lower East Side residence with his mother and brother.
Rosario allegedly worked with at least three other accomplices. The victim was later found in the back of a van in Queens.
The same thing happened with the victim, who by this time was completely unconscious and “barely breathing.”
He was “wrapped in a blanket with his mouth taped over,” the complaint said.
According to the complaint, the man was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for multiple burns and stab wounds to his face, body, back and legs.
In a Manhattan criminal court, Kluger requested that Rosario be held without bail.
Judge Soma Sayed agreed that, given the seriousness of the crime, Rosario should be kept in custody.
Her lawyer pleaded for her release, noting that she lived with her mother and brother, working full-time in a dentist’s office.
‘RS. Rosario denies all charges that have been brought against her,” defense attorney Raymond Loving said on Monday.
Along with Rosarios, Vargas and another of the alleged kidnappers were also charged and taken into custody at a grand jury hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
New York City has seen a surge in crime in recent years, with new mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, promising to quell the rise in violence. Violent crimes rose by almost one-fifth in a year, shootings rose by 10%, rapes by a third, robberies by 43.5%, and overall crime increased by 45.3%.
Crime in the city was up 45% year-over-year, robberies up 43.5%, and assaults up 17.2%.