Maniac charged in cold case slaying of transgender performer, Puerto Rican Beyonc Lorena Escalera: cops
A maniac already serving time for murdering his ex-girlfriend was charged Friday in the cold case murder of a well-known transgender performer — known as the “Puerto Rican Beyoncé” — who was found dead in a 2012 Brooklyn fire, cops and sources said. Henry Pacheco, 44, was charged with murder, arson and petit larceny in connection to the May 12, 2012 death of Lorena Escalera, 25, who went by the stage name Lorena Xtravaganza, cops said. Early that morning, Pacheco called Escalera multiple times before trudging up to the victim’s third-floor apartment on Furman Avenue near Bushwick Avenue, Assistant District Attorney Steven Bravo said during the alleged killer’s Friday afternoon arraignment in Brooklyn Supreme Court.“After about an hour the defendant was seen exiting the building as the fire began to take over the building,” Bravo said.
“The origin of the fire was the bedroom where the victim’s body was found.”Escalera was found unconscious with burns on her body as first responders descended on her burning apartment, sources said at the time. Investigators believe Pacheco murdered Escalera and then set the apartment on fire to cover his tracks, sources said Friday.Bravo confirmed that Escalera “was deceased before the fire started,” and that she died by “homicidal violence.”Pacheco’s exact relationship to Escalera was not immediately known. Someone made a call on the victim’s phone after her death, and that caller was known to Pacheco, but not to Escalera, Bravo said.Those who knew Escalera called her the “Puerto Rican Beyoncé.”“Every time she got on stage, no matter the place, the crowd used to enjoy her performance,” club manager Adolfo Diaz Estrada told The Post at the time. Nearly five years after Escalera’s murder, Pacheco allegedly murdered his ex-girlfriend Brooke Garcia, 27, inside an East Village apartment on January 4, 2017, according to sources and a criminal complaint.
Loved ones told WABC at the time...