CHLOE OTTMAN - 16 yo (2010) - Waterbury CT

Police in Connecticut charged a 19-year-old man with raping and
killing a 16-year-old girl after the two walked together to a closed and
decaying religious attraction.Francisco Cruz, of Waterbury, is
charged with murder and sexual assault in the death of his friend Chloe
Ottman. Her body was found near Holy Land USA on Saturday.Police
say Cruz admitted that he killed Ottman on Thursday evening and led
investigators to her body.The 18-acre former religious attraction
is on a hillside overlooking Waterbury. It featured a "Hollywood"-style
Holy Land USA sign and replicas of Bethlehem and Jerusalem made from
scrap wood, chicken wire, sheet-metal and other materials. It closed
years ago, though its 50-foot cross is still illuminated at night.

Police have charged a friend with the murder of Chloe Ottman, the
16-year old girl whose body was found Saturday at Holy Land USA, the
former tourist attraction now owned by an order of nuns.



Francisco Cruz, 19, of 17 Hickory St., Waterbury,
is being held to face murder charges after his friend, Chloe Ottman, 16,
was found dead Saturday at Holy Land USA.

Francisco Cruz, 19, of 17 Hickory St., was charged with capital felony murder,
first-degree sexual assault, and second-degree strangulation and was
being held on $5 million bond.

Waterbury Police Capt. Christopher Corbett said when Cruz was first questioned by police he denied any
knowledge of Ottman's disappearance. On Saturday afternoon he confessed
to killing her and led police to her body, in a wooded area near a path
leading away from Holy Land. Corbett said she was killed at the base of
the cross, the famous landmark of the former tourist attraction, and her
body moved to a more secluded area. Thousands of people once visited
the landmark each year.

Corbett said police started investigating after Ottman's mother reported her missing on Friday night.

Corbett said Cruz and Ottman had been friends for about two years. The two had
gone out on Thursday night, spending time at the Brass Mill Center mall,
and had later headed to the Holy Land landmark for a walk. Corbett said
Ottman was killed around 10 p.m. Thursday. She was raped and
strangled. An autopsy scheduled for Monday morning is expected to
determine the exact cause of death.

The police investigation focused on Cruz, who appeared to have
been the last person to have seen her.

Cruz will be arraigned in Waterbury Superior Court on Monday morning.

Ottman, a popular city teen, is being remembered by
friends and family in a Facebook page that had more than 1,600 followers
by late Sunday afternoon. A candlelight vigil is scheduled for Sunday
night in her memory.

This picture was posted on Facebook of the victim.

A 19-year-old Connecticut man will be making his first court appearance
since being charged in the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl at a
closed and run-down religious attraction in Waterbury.

Francisco Cruz is expected to be arraigned Monday in Waterbury Superior Court on
capital felony, murder and sexual assault charges connected to the death
of Chloe Ottman. He's being held on $5 million bail.

Ottman and Cruz, both of Waterbury, were friends. Her body was found near the Holy
Land USA site Saturday, a day after her family reported her missing.

Police say Cruz initially denied having anything to do with Ottman's
disappearance but later led investigators to her body and confessed to
sexually assaulting and strangling her.

It's not clear if Cruz has a lawyer.

The arrest warrant for a 19-year old Waterbury man charged in a
teenage girl's rape and murder reveals disturbing and explicit details
about the night she died. 16-year old Chloe Ottman was reported
missing on July 16. She was last seen alive with 19-year old Francisco
Cruz, the man charged in her death. On July 17, Cruz sat down
with detectives and confessed to her murder. According to the arrest
warrant, Cruz and Ottman have been friends for about two years. Cruz
told police that they met up at the Brass City Mall on July 15th around
4pm. From there, the pair bought some alcoholic drinks and went to Holy
Land to smoke cigarettes and drink. That's when Cruz says he tried to
have sex with Ottman, but she refused his advances. Cruz says he
kept trying to "make his move" on Ottman, when she pushed him away and
hit him on the face with her elbow, knocking his glasses off his face.
"I got so mad at her. I hate when people hit me on the face," the
warrant reads. That's when he claims to have choked the girl
until she was unconscious and began "to rape her." Cruz told
police that Ottman then "gasped for air like two different times" and
that is "when I decided that I had to kill her." After the rape,
Cruz wanted to make sure she was dead and stabbed her in the neck
several times with a pocket knife. Cruz then dragged her body from the
base of the cross to a wooded area nearby. He led police to the body
after his initial confession. Both the victim's family and the
suspect's family crowded the courtroom for the arraignment. Cruz did not
enter a plea and his bond was kept at $5 million. The judge also
ordered a psychiatric evaluation. "I just want him to stay in
jail for the rest of his life, he took my friend's life away from her,"
said Ottman's friend, Alasia Costello of Waterbury. Cruz and
Ottman had been friends for about two years. On Thursday, they allegedly
went to the Brass Mill Mall together and then to Holy Land where Ottman
was raped and then strangled. "She was like always there for me
and she was always an amazing person, she was so different from
everybody else, her attitude and stuff was amazing," said Rachelle
Connors of Meriden. Cruz is facing a capital felony murder
charge, which could lead to the death penalty, if convicted. "It's
so hard to know that she's gone this soon and someone that she knows
took her life away from her, it's not fair, it's so not fair," cried
Angelica Bowen of Waterbury. Ottman would have been a junior at
Crosby High School this fall.

Chloe Ottman, a 16-year-old girl described as a sister and best friend
to many, didn't die without a fight.
Francisco Cruz, the man accused of killing her, told police she fought fiercely his advances,
elbowing him in the face and screaming into the night in a secluded
wooded area at the base of a 50-foot illuminated cross.
Court documents made public Monday indicate Cruz raped Ottman twice as he was
strangling her. After finding she had no pulse, Cruz raped her again,
then mutilated her body by stabbing her repeatedly in the neck with his
pocket knife and twisting the blade to cut her artery.
"I am raping a girl If I let her live, I'm going to jail for a long time I
gotta kill her," Cruz told police, according to court documents.
Cruz, 19, of 17 Hickory St., was charged Sunday with capital felony murder in
Ottman's death. If convicted, he could be executed.
Cruz was arraigned Monday in Waterbury Superior Court in a tense hearing that ended in sobs.
Ottman's family sat in the first two rows of the
courtroom; Cruz's supporters sat behind them, a row left empty between
the two groups until two Waterbury detectives arrived and filled the space.
Cruz, a tall, lanky teen with black-rimmed glasses, ambled
from the cell blocks, his arms shackled to his sides, his eyes fixed on
the courtroom floor. His powder-blue T-shirt was stained yellow on the
left shoulder blade and his saggy blue jeans were adorned with "$"
patches on the backside.
Sobs could be heard from Cruz's supporters during the brief hearing, and a dark-haired woman from
Ottman's family rested her head on the shoulder of the man next to her.
"I've been reading statements for 30 years," said State's Attorney John A.
Connelly of the confession Cruz gave to police. "This is one of the most
chilling, if not the most chilling, statement I have read."
A special public defender from the state's capital defense unit was
expected to be assigned to Cruz, who is due back in court on Sept. 2 for
a probable cause hearing. During that hearing, a judge will decide
whether prosecutors have enough evidence to support the murder charge.
Cruz didn't comment during the brief proceeding. Judge Richard Damiani set
his bond at $5 million, agreeing with Connelly that his statement was "chilling."
Cruz, who told police he had known Ottman for about
two years, encountered her at the Brass Mill Center on Thursday
afternoon, meeting her at the smoking area near Burlington Coat Factory.
They walked Cruz's mother home, then decided to get some drinks,
according to court documents.
Cruz told a detective he bought four cans of "Joose," a malt liquor that lists its ingredients as
ginseng, caffeine and fruit flavoring, from a store at the corner of
Washington Street and Baldwin Street.
They trekked to Holy Land to drink and talk, arriving at the decaying religious park at about 7
p.m., according to court documents.
As they sat at the base of the cross that overlooks the city and Interstate 84, Ottman talked about
her boyfriend, while Cruz told police he ignored phone calls from his mother.
Cruz told police he was getting "tipsy" from the malt liquor and said he had a crush on Ottman.
She never gave him a shot to be her boyfriend, he told police. He tried to grope her as they
lay at the base of the cross, but she rejected him each time, pushing
him away from her and elbowing him in the face.
"I didn't care and just kept trying to touch her," he told police.
Angered by a blow that knocked the glasses from his face, Cruz told police he coiled
his arm around Ottman's neck and began to squeeze the life from her body.
She tried to scream, but Cruz covered her mouth.
Cruz pushed her down onto the cross's concrete slab, wrapped his hands
around her neck and held on for about a minute until she passed out,
according to court documents.
Finding she had a pulse and feeling her heart pumping,
Cruz told police he ripped her clothes off and raped her.
During the rape, Ottman gasped for air, and Cruz choked her
again, deciding he had to kill her because of the rape, according to
his arrest warrant. He then stabbed her multiple times in her neck,
telling police he wanted to make sure she was dead.
He wrapped her clothing around the wounds on her neck to staunch the blood and stop
it from staining the concrete slab, then dragged her naked body into
nearby woods and tossed her clothes behind a pile of trees.
Ottman's mother reported her missing the next day.

For the record, this is Joose. It has varieties with up to 3x the amount of alcohol in beer.

At least the monster confessed and is off the streets and will never be able to do this to another young girl....Poor girl how scared she must've been. I feel sorry for her parents having to deal with the details of what this monster did to their daughter....He should get the death penalty.

Guilty plea in killing at Conn. religious site

Associated Press, 04.20.11, 03:52 PM EDT
WATERBURY, Conn. -- A man accused of killing a 16-year-old girl at a former Connecticut religious attraction has pleaded guilty to murder.
Prosecutor Eva Lenczewski (len-ZEHW'-skee) says Francisco Cruz will face 55 years in prison under a plea agreement when he's sentenced June 17. The 20-year-old Cruz had faced a capital felony charge that could've carried a death sentence.Prosecutors say Cruz confessed to killing his friend Chloe Ottman at Holy Land USA last July. Cruz told police he raped, choked and fatally stabbed her when she rejected his advances.

Holy Land USA was an 18-acre religious attraction on a hillside overlooking Waterbury, Cruz' hometown. It featured a Hollywood-style sign and replicas of Bethlehem and Jerusalem made from scrap wood, chicken wire and other materials.
Its 50-foot cross serves as a city landmark.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/04/20/general-us-holy-land-killing_8426966.html