Investigators believe a 38-year-old man was stabbed to death in his Queens, New York apartment by a man he met on the Internet, police sources said Thursday.
Michael Pecora's nude body was found in his Forest Hills, NY apartment late Wednesday, hours after his sister called his cell phone only to have a stranger answer, the sources said.
The man with Pecora's cell phone was a cab driver, who told the sister he was given the phone earlier in the week by a passenger who said he didn't have any money to pay the fare, sources said.
The passenger gave the cab driver the phone and a watch as payment when he was dropped off in the Bronx.
The panicked sister called police, and detectives interviewed the cabbie, who told them he picked up the mysterious passenger near Pecora's 65th Ave. apartment, sources said.
The building super climbed onto the fire escape and let cops into Pecora's sixth-floor apartment through the window where they found his body sprawled in a hallway near his bedroom. He had been stabbed three times.
"He was a good kid," said Sam Pecora, the victim's father, from his home in Pennsylvania.
Pecora's laptop was missing and the cabbie remembered that the suspicious fare was carrying what resembled a computer. That fueled investigators' belief that the killer met Pecora on the Internet and was trying to cover his tracks, sources said.
The cab is being dusted for prints.
Pecora's friends told investigators he used the Internet to find dates, sources said.
A graduate of the University of Tampa who worked for MasterCard, he was well-liked by neighbors who recalled his friendly demeanor.
"It's an absolute shock," said Roberto Sonabria, who lives on the same floor as Pecora. "It's a family neighborhood [and] he was a nice man."
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