Roommate busted for murder of 65-year-old whose remains were found in suitcase floating in East River: cops

A 23-year-old man has been busted for the murder of his much-older roommate whose remains were found inside a suitcase floating on the East River – allegedly hacking him to death and then dismembering him in a fight over food, cops and sources said Thursday. Christian Millet was charged with second-degree murder Wednesday night, a week after 65-year-old Edwin Echevarria’s torso was found stuffed inside a suitcase floating near Governor’s Island, police said. Millet allegedly confessed to knocking Echevarria to the ground, stomping him on the head and using a makeshift ice pick to stab him 14 times inside their shared Columbia Street apartment, within NYCHA’s Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side, law enforcement sources said. He allegedly admitted to then dragging the body to the bathtub and cutting it up with a kitchen knife, the sources said. The savage killing appears to have stemmed from a fight between the roommates over food, according to the sources. Investigators began probing the disturbing case when a passing vessel spotted a suitcase floating in the river and alerted police around 5:30 p.m.on Wednesday last week, cops said.Police opened the luggage and made the stomach-churning discovery.It’s unclear how long the suitcase was drifting in the water.Millet was nabbed once cops secured a search warrant to the apartment he and Echevarria shared, sources said.Millet happened to be home, and he was taken to the NYPD’s 7th Precinct, where he confessed, according to the sources. He does not have any prior arrests in the Big Apple, cops said.

His arraignment in the killing was pending Thursday morning. ...