Twenty-two years ago, a child nicknamed "Baby Hope" was found dead in the woods on the upper west side of Manhattan. After all this time, police have been able to identify "Baby Hope" as Anjelica Castillo, and they were able to find her murderer.

The 4-year-old's remains were rotting away in a blue and white picnic cooler when she was discovered along Henry Hudson Parkway during the summer of 1991. Anjelica's cousin, then-30-year-old dishwasher Conrado Juarez, sexually assaulted her, murdered her and then dumped her body.

Juarez, 52, confessed to the killing on Saturday, closing one of the city's most notorious cold cases. In his confession, he stated that he smothered Anjelica with a pillow in the hallway of his sister's home; and when Anjelica went limp, Juarez's sister, Balvina Juarez-Ramirez helped him dispose of Anjelica's body in a filthy cooler that still had full cans of soda still in it. When they put Anjelica's small, 28-pound body in the cooling box, she was naked and bound, and had been sexually violated. The two then took a cab from Juarez-Ramirez's home in Astoria, Queens to Manhattan, where they dropped the cooler off in a shaded area. Then, they simply returned to their respective homes. Juarez lived in the Bronx.

Hundreds attended the funeral of the unidentified girl. Assistant Chief Joseph Reznick, who also worked the case, gave the eulogy; and then the men paid for the headstone, which read, "Because we care."

Hundreds of people were suspected of the murder during the twenty-two year investigation of the crime. Anjelica was exhumed twice for DNA testing, in 2007 and in 2011.

Former detective Jerry Giorgio worked the case from 1991 until his retirement this past summer, and missed the tipster call by just a few weeks. The tipster led police to identify Anjelica's mother and find her sister, who confirmed that her sister may have been killed two decades ago. The girls' mother did not have custody of Anjelica at the time. Anjelica's sister led police to Jaurez, whose address they found by going door-to-door. And, when they went to Juarez's home, his daughter lied saying that Juarez had been in Mexico for the last twelve years, but his wife confessed that Jaurez worked at a downtown Manhattan restaurant, at which he was arrested.  

Juarez, who was never considered as a suspect, was subject to a five-hour interrogation before he finally confessed to the crime. He was charged with second-degree murder, and showed no remorse at the arraignment last Saturday evening. He pled not guilty.

The detectives expressed their delight over the arrest, and said that they would attach Anjelica's name to her tombstone, which is located in St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.