The Cold Case of Carmen Vargas | Found on Long Island’s Meadowbrook Parkway

In this episode of True Crime with the Sarge - The Audio Files, retired NYPD Sergeant Joseph Giacalone examines the cold case of Carmen Vargas, whose body was discovered along the southbound lanes of the Meadowbrook Parkway near Freeport, Long Island.

Who was Carmen Vargas? What happened in the hours leading up to her death? Why has this case remained unsolved, and what investigative questions still linger today?

Join us as we explore the known facts, timeline, evidence, and investigative challenges surrounding one of Long Island’s enduring unsolved homicide cases. From the initial discovery to the search for answers decades later, this episode takes a closer look at the victim, the investigation, and the importance of keeping cold cases alive in the public eye.

If you’re interested in cold case investigations, unsolved murders, Long Island crime history, criminal investigations, and victim-focused true crime storytelling, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Subscribe to True Crime with the Sarge - The Audio Files for expert analysis, exclusive interviews, and in-depth discussions on some of the most compelling criminal cases in America.

Transcript

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This podcast contains adult language, adult topics. Listener discretion is advised. TrueCrime with the Sarge The Audiophiles is owned and operated by Sarge Media LLC. Please consider liking and subscribing to the channel. She told her niece she'd be back, just like she always did. This time she didn't. And for three years, three long years, nobody even knew her name. Her body lay in an overgrown stretch of ground thirty feet from the shoulder of the Meadowbrook Parkway on Long Island. Bound at the ankles, a rope around her neck, a towel draped over her face, and nothing to identify her. Her family was from East Harlem in Manhattan. They were asking neighbors if anybody had seen her. She was already on that parkway. Now we're going back in time to Long Island, 1989, for the coal case of Carmen Vargas. Thirty-six years later it's still unsolved. But the case, in my opinion, it's getting very hot. Before I get into the case file, let me tell you who Carmen Vargas was. Because in cases like this, victim background matters. It tells you about her life, it tells you how she became vulnerable, and it tells you why cases like her often get pushed to the back of the file. That happens. I've seen it, and it's wrong. Carmen Vargas was twenty nine years old, a petite Hispanic woman, five one, one hundred five pounds, black hair and brown eyes. Originally from New York City, she was living in East Harlem. She had a family who loved her, a sister, a niece named Felicita, who was twelve years old at the time, and who has never stopped fighting for her aunt. Carmen was working in the sex trade at the time of her disappearance. She had worked other jobs, but this is where her life had taken her. I'm not here to judge that, and neither should you. She was a human being with people who loved her, and she deserved. She deserves to have her murder solved. In the summer of nineteen eighty nine on what appears to have been an evening either in late August or very early September, Carmen went out from her family's apartment in East Harlem. Young Felicita asked her if she was coming upstairs for the night. Carmen said no. She said leave the door open, I'll be back. Felicia believed her because she always came back. That night, Carmen was seen getting into a dark colored vehicle outside the apartment building. Her niece, just twelve years old at the time, caught a glimpse. A white man, glasses. That's it. That's all they had. And Carmen Vargas was never seen alive again. Now let's go to the crime scene. And I want to be specific here because the details matter. On september eleventh, nineteen eighty nine, a passing motorist pulled over on the southbound shoulder of the Meadowbrook State Parkway in Freeport, Nassau County, Long Island. About a half a mile south of Merrick Road, and there in a wooded area, approximately thirty feet from the edge of the highway, they saw what appeared to be a body. They called it in at approximately ten thirty in the morning. Nassau County police and the New York State police responded and secured the scene. Here's what investigators found. A woman, petite build, dressed in a gray tank top and miniskirt, the same clothes that Felicita had seen her last wearing. Her legs were bound at the ankles with cord, a towel was draped over her face, a rope was tied around her neck, and according to her family, her wrists were also bound. Here's what made this case immediately difficult. The body was significantly decomposed. Thirty feet off the parkway in summer heat for weeks. Detectives could not determine cause of death with certainty. They could not establish whether she had been sexually assaulted. But here's what the family was later told by detectives. She fought. Three of her teeth were knocked out, and her hyoid bone, the small bone in the throat, was partially missing. That's a classic indicator of strangulation. Carmen Vargas fought for her life. Don't ever lose sight of that. Officials believe she was murdered at a different location, and her body was then transported to the parkway and dumped, possibly two to four weeks before discovery. That means the dump site at the Meadowbrook Parkway is not the primary crime scene. Her body remained unidentified for three years. That's right, three years. It wasn't until dental records were matched that her family finally got the answer to what had happened, and by that time she had already been buried in a potter's field in Lynbrook. They couldn't even bring her home. The investigation and why it went cold. Let me give you some context about what investigators were dealing with back in 1989. No DNA databases, no digital forensics, no cell phone records, no license plate readers, no surveillance footage worth a damn. And this was on a parkway in Nassau County where even lights were an issue. The physical evidence was severely compromised because of exposure to the elements. So what did investigators actually have? They had a partial witness account from a twelve year old who took a glimpse at a man in a dark vehicle. Some physical evidence at the site, a cord, rope and a towel, and a badly decomposed body. Not much to go on. Do you have any idea what the difference is from today and twenty twenty six and nineteen eighty nine? If this case happened today, it's like night and day. The case stalled. It went cold, not because investigators didn't care, but because in nineteen eighty nine, with the evidence available, the leads dried up fast. For years the family, particularly Carmen's niece, believed convicted serial killer Joel Rifkin might be responsible. Rifkin had already been convicted of nine murders of women in the sex trade between nineteen eighty nine and nineteen ninety three. She even asked why he wouldn't just confess to one more if he was already going to be locked up forever. It was a fair question. But Rifkin never admitted to killing Carmen Vargas. The case went dormant until something happened in July of twenty twenty three that changed everything. Is there a connection to Rex Sherman? That's a question that many people have asked over the last couple of years. On july thirteenth, twenty twenty three, New York State police arrested Rex Sherman, a Manhattan architect, and charged him at the time with the murders of three women whose bodies were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. He was also at the time the prime suspect in a fourth murder. These victims became known as the Gilgo IV, and by the time the investigation was completed, Herman had been charged in seven homicides. On july seventeenth, twenty twenty six, Rex Herman will be sentenced for the killing of eight women. When Felicita Figaroa, Karma's niece, heard about the details of the arrest, she told the news that she was convinced that it was him. Let me walk you through some of the similarities because as someone who spent a career in law enforcement, I'm telling you, these details matter. We were always trained to see if your case that you're currently investigating was connected to another. So this is something that happens naturally amongst cold case investigators. Number one, geographic proximity. The Meadowbrook Parkway where Carmen was dumped leads directly to Jones Beach and Ocean Parkway, where the Gilgo Beach bodies were found. We're talking about the same highway corridor, seven miles from Herman's childhood home in Massapequa Park, the boot. Number two, bindings. Carmen's ankles were bound with cord, her wrists were bound, a rope around her neck, and some of the Gilgo Beach victims were found either bound or wrapped. We do know about the belt in Maureen Brainerd Barnes' case. Ligature patterns in serial cases are like signatures and are very important for investigators. Number three, the victim profile. Carmen Varcas was a petite woman, five one, one hundred five pounds, in her late twenties, working in the sex trade. That matches the profile of humans alleged victims very closely. Number four, dumped site behavior. The body was transported from the murder location and dumped in an isolated roadside area near water. That is consistent with how the Gilgo Beach victims were handled. Number five, and this one should give you a red flag. Rex Sherman in nineteen eighty nine was approximately twenty five years old. He was also working for a construction company in Freeport. Records show a possible residence on Bedell Street in Freeport, just a few minutes drive from the Meadowbrook Parkway dump site. He knew that area, he worked in that area. I for one don't believe that Sandra Castilla was Rex's first victim. I believe there are additional victims earlier on. He has spent his time convincing us that there are only eight, but I don't believe that. However, like the district attorney Ray Tierney says, it's not what I know or how I feel, it's what I can prove. If you've read Mindhunter by John Douglas, he states that the killer often commits his first crime near his home or work. It's where he's most comfortable, but it's also where he can most likely make his biggest mistakes. The Nassau County District Attorney's Office in 2020 confirmed that they were actively investigating the potential connection between Herman and Carmen Vargas. Now I have to be straight with you because that's what I do, and I have to make sure we emphasize this because it can't be said enough. Rex Herman has not been charged in Carmen Vargas's death. Nothing is proven. There is no evidence that we know of. But as a retirement retired law enforcement officer, the geographic proximity, the MO, the timeline, the victim profile, to me it demands a serious investigation.

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And it's getting it.

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Here's the cold case breakdown as far as I'm concerned. So let me give you a read on this case, the way I would have looked at it when I was still the commanding officer of the Bronx Colt case squad. I used to do this for a living, and this is something that I do now to try to help out families and sometimes investigators. First, let's look at the dump site location. It was strategic. It wasn't a panic drop. The body was transported possibly miles and placed at this location off a specific highway. That takes planning. That takes someone who knew the area, who was comfortable there. And the fact that you have a suspect that lived not too far and worked from this location, that's not nothing. That's a jump point or starting point for investigators to look at. Second, the bindings. You don't accidentally tie someone's up at the ankles and wrists and put a rope around their neck. It's very organized, it's deliberate, it's planned. This is someone who's either done this before, who has made detailed plans about it. Third, the three year gap before identification. That's not just a tragedy for the family. It's an investigation problem. It gave whoever did this nearly three years before the victim even had a name, to get rid of evidence and what have you. That cold window is one of the most damaging things that can happen to a homicide investigation. Fourth, the location pattern. If you look at the map, the Meadowbrook Parkway leads to Ocean Parkway in Jones Beach. It's the same route. This case is looked at differently than it was thirty six years ago. And here's what's changed technology. DNA possibly from degraded evidence if it's located on this victim. Advanced fiber analysis, mitochondrial DNA extraction, digital forensics going back through paper logs and phone records from 1989. But most importantly, you have a possible suspect to compare evidence to. And for the family, specifically the niece, she's never stopped. Every time I've seen her on the news, she's out there advocating for her aunt. She's always going on the news, telling people about her aunt about this case. That's the kind of family that breaks coal cases wide open. Because they won't let the world forget. And they shouldn't. A call to action. Here's what the police need from you, the public. The New York State Police, Troop L, located in Farmingdale, investigator Tiffany Atai. She's the same investigator who broke the Gilgo case wide open by identifying the avalanche in the case file, which led to the arrest of Rex Sherman. And to me, that's not a coincidence. And anybody who has ever seen me or heard me talk about cases, I don't believe in coincidences. Investigator Atai is in charge of Carmen Vargas's case, Tina Folia, and Tanya Rush. They are actively asking for tips in this case. If you know anything, anything at all about what happened on that parkway in 1989, you should call them. The phone number is six three one seven five six three three zero zero. You don't have to give your name, you just have to make the call. Carmen Vargas was twenty nine years old. She had her whole life ahead of her. She had a sister who loved her and a niece who idolized her. She said she'd be back. She deserves justice, and that justice is still possible and can help if the public knows something and says something. If you're listening to this and you've ever driven the Meadowbrook Parkway, and if you're from Long Island, you have. Remember that stretch of road where you never think twice, that's where someone left her. And someone knows something. That's the case file on Carmen Vargas, an unsolved murder from Long Island, a cold case that may be getting warmer by the day. If you want to follow this investigation and every development in the Rex Sherman case and others, make sure you subscribe to the channel True Crime with the Sarge. I cover every update as it breaks with first hand law enforcement experience. Drop your thoughts in the comments. Have you ever heard of this case? Are you following it? What's your view on a possible suspect? I want to hear from you. I'm the Sarge. Stay locked in, and I'll see you at the next one. For more shows like this, check out True Crime with the Sarge on YouTube or on my official website, JosephJackalone.com. This podcast is owned and operated by Sarge Media LLC. All rights reserved. Thank you for listening.