David Diaz
Cruise Ship Crew Member Murdered In Port
December 2, 2007
David Diaz
Date: December 2, 2007
Bruise: Murder
Bruise Location: Brooklyn, New York
Age: 26
Home Town: New York
Cruise Line:
Ship:
Details:
When a cruise ship cabin steward befriended a pretty, young convict on parole for drug charges, he made the mistake of his life.
Arrested and charged with the murder of David Diaz, age 26, was Pamela Hanson, 20. Police charge that Hanson murdered the cruise ship cabin steward by stabbing him with a knife in the Best Western Gregory Hotel at 8315 Fourth Aveue in Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, New York.
Police say he was beaten and then stabbed to death.
Diaz lived about eight blocks away above the Zahran Supermarket, 7618 - 5th Avenue, located between 77th and 76th and about five miles away from the Broolyn cruise ship terminal. Apparently, Diaz rented the motel room for the trist, because he lived at home with his father David Diaz Sr and his mother Deborah Diaz.
Police arrested Hanson, a resident of Bedford-Stuyvesan, as she was meeting with a probation officer this week in Brooklyn following a previous drug arrest. She was charged with second-degree murder.
Police said they had used the dead man's phone records and surveillance video to uncover Hanson's identity after she was seen entering the motel with Diaz.
A sketch made from the motel video that showed a woman leaving the motel room Diaz was staying in, was circulated in the media. The suspect was described as a hispanic woman about 5'2" tall in her 20s. Hanson fits that description.
Hanson has claimed that she stabbed Diaz after becoming scared during a sexual encounter in the motel room and killed him self-defense. That may be hard to buy as Diaz was stabbed in the back with blunt trauma wounds to his head. Police say the blunt force trauma to the head is what killed him.
They entered the motel room about 3pm on December 2 for an afternoon trist. She said that she had been friends with Diaz and that he had offered to help her find work. She exited the motel room about noon on December 3, and the maid found Diaz dead in the room about twenty minutes later.
After she allegedly stabbed him, police said Hanson cleaned up the blood and left the motel.
Police did not release any further information, citing the ongoing investigation.
Diaz’s funeral was at St. Anselm Roman Catholic Church
