Sunday, February 14, 2010
By Dave Canfield
The Record
TROY — In 1994, Daniel C. Rondeau admitted his role in strangling his pregnant 15-year-old girlfriend to death in his Troy apartment before dismembering and burying her. Now, 16 years later, he is telling investigators he killed others as well.
Troy police detectives, however, doubt the vague claims made by Rondeau in recent letters to the department and the State Police suggesting there are other bodies whose locations he could divulge. Rondeau, who is currently serving 25 years to life in state prison, has a history of mental illness, police sources noted.
“There’s no other bodies,” one police official who took part in the 1993 murder investigation of Antionette Strope said flatly.
He said all missing person reports at the time were followed up on for months, with detectives looking for connections to Rondeau or co-defendant Joseph K. Poette of Cohoes that were never found. There are no open cases from that time period that might arouse suspicion, he said.
Troy detectives visited the 42-year-old Rondeau at the maximum-security Auburn Correctional Facility recently, but the inmate divulged little and said he wanted to seek an attorney, another police source said. Detectives are awaiting further contact from him.
Rondeau and Poette, then 25 and 22, respectively, strangled Strope in Rondeau's Ninth Street apartment on Feb. 15, 1993, before cutting her into six pieces with a hacksaw in the bathroom. Testimony at Poette's trial from a witness present in the apartment indicated the killers were joking about the murder, which they matter-of-factly planned so Rondeau could avoid supporting a child he did not want and would be free to see another teenager with whom he was already involved.
Strope had threatened to accuse him of statutory rape when she learned he planned to leave her.
Police arrested Rondeau and Poette days later when a person present during the disposal of her body in rural Berlin contacted authorities. At the time of the murder, detectives described it as the most gruesome one they could recall.
Rondeau pleaded guilty instead of facing a jury and Poette was convicted at trial soon after. Both are serving sentences that could keep them behind bars for life. At sentencing, Rensselaer County Court Judge Patrick McGrath called Rondeau a “menace to society” in handing down the maximum sentence for second-degree murder.
Rondeau was in and out of psychiatric care in the years before the killing, according to contemporaneous news reports. He was, however, found competent to stand trial for the murder. His public defender at the time, Art Glass, was considering putting up an insanity defense.
Glass, now a prosecutor, did not wish to comment. District Attorney Richard McNally similarly declined comment on Rondeau.
After the killing, neighbors claimed Rondeau whipped girls to the point of screaming in his apartment at 335 Ninth St, and his estranged wife said he would tie her up and force her to have sex with other men. Acquaintances of Rondeau and Poette told The Record in 1993 that the pair had once bought rope and gloves for a planned attack on a romantic rival of Poette, but the plan was foiled.
Police say they pursued the possibility of additional crimes with zeal nearly two decades ago. While the matter of the letters remains an open one, the official who once worked Rondeau’s case said he’s convinced it will amount to nothing.
The department’s spokesman, Sgt. Terry Buchanan, said the issue is being pursued with due diligence, but it comes down to a question of credibility.
“We’re professionally obligated to look into any credible information,” he said. “We’re trying to establish the credibility of it.”
A State Police spokesperson confirmed investigators there had received correspondence from Rondeau and were looking into the claims contained in the letters, which do not request compensation from authorities.
According to the state Department of Correctional Services, Rondeau and Poette will be eligible for parole in February of 2018.
Dave Canfield can be reached at 270-1290 or by e-mail at dcanfield@troyrecord.com.
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