It took more than 30 years, but dogged detectives cracked the case of a murdered 15-year-old Queens girl found naked strangled with her own bra.
A Virginia man, who once lived in an adjoining apartment in the Far Rockaway building, was indicted by a grand jury and arraigned Monday on a second-degree murder charge for the 1992 slaying of Nadine Slade, who was discovered dead by her mother.
The arrest was welcome long-overdue news for Nadine’s relatives, who have lived with unresolved grief for decades.
“We’re just glad he got caught,” the victim’s brother told the Daily News.
The brother looked on in Queens Criminal Court along with his sister and two of her children. The sister kept her head down, cried and closed her eyes.
Investigators caught a break in the case after Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office and the NYPD last year requested that the New York City Medical Examiner’s office test for DNA under the victim’s preserved fingernail clippings.
The test resulted in DNA evidence that linked Lewis to the crime, officials said.
The investigation also included multiple witness interviews and extensive searches of records.
Lewis lived with others in the adjoining apartment, which used the same bathroom as the apartment where the victim’s family was staying the night before the murder, officials said. Lewis and Nadine did not know one another, according to officials.
“Any mother’s worst nightmare is to survive a child,” Katz said. ” To lose a child in such a horrific way causes unimaginable pain. Not knowing who committed the crime compounds the suffering. In the end, we hope to achieve justice for Nadine and bring closure and some measure of solace to her bereaved mother.”
Lewis, 58, of Shawsville, Virginia, was ordered held without bail and is due back in court June 7. If convicted, Lewis faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison if convicted.
Lewis appeared in handcuffs wearing a pea green sweatsuit and a blue surgical mask pulled below…
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