ALBANY,
N.Y. (AP) — A man previously
charged with having child pornography cut an electronic monitoring device off
his ankle before carjacking a woman, fatally stabbing her and raping her 10-year-old daughter,
authorities said.
David J. Renz
abducted the school librarian and her daughter as they left a gymnastics
class at a mall in the Syracuse suburb of Clay, about 150 miles west of Albany,
on Thursday night, state police said Friday.
Renz bound both
victims, raped the girl and drove a short distance to a spot where the girl
escaped and was found by a passing motorist, troopers said.
The motorist told
911 dispatchers he saw a man running away from the scene, allowing police to
quickly send in officers on the ground and a sheriff’s helicopter in the air.
Renz was caught a short time later near a wooded area.
It was unclear how
the girl escaped or when her mother was killed, authorities said.
“We’re still
trying to piece the timeline together,” Trooper Jack Keller said.
The girl was being
treated at a hospital Friday. Her mother died from multiple stab wounds.
Renz, 29, had been
charged in January with possession of child pornography and allowed to remain
free under terms that included staying off the Internet and away from places
including schools, parks and arcades. He lost his job at a supermarket, moved
in with his mother and hadn’t been able to find other work after his arrest,
according to court documents. Federal authorities said he cut his electronic
monitoring device off his ankle shortly before Thursday’s attacks.
Renz was arraigned
Friday on murder, rape and kidnapping charges and was held without bail. The
lawyer assigned to his case, Ken Moynihan, didn’t return a call seeking
comment.
The Associated
Press generally doesn’t publish information that could identify potential sex
crime victims and isn’t naming the woman to protect the girl’s identity.
According to an
FBI criminal complaint, agents who went to the North Syracuse apartment where
Renz was living in June found in his bedroom four computers that he told them
he used to view adult pornography.
Agent Alix Skelton
said Renz eventually admitted using the Internet for the past six years to
download child porn to a drive on one of the machines, which he turned over to
the agents. Technicians determined in November that it had an encrypted hard
drive, and Skelton said Renz provided the encryption key. Agents reviewing the
drive in December found about 100 gigabytes of child porn comprising more than
500 videos and more than 3,000 images, according to the complaint.
Among the images
were two showing sex acts involving prepubescent girls, said Skelton, a member
of a unit that targets people involved in online exploitation of children.
Renz was charged on Jan. 9 in federal court with possession of child
pornography. On Jan. 29, a judge granted a prosecutor’s request for an
extension of the time required for grand jury action so investigators could continue going
over “numerous items of electric media” for additional evidence.
Renz, who
authorities said had no prior police record, was released after agreeing to
stay at home at night with an electronic monitor and away from any place he
might encounter children.
But Renz removed
the monitor, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan said. Federal
probation officials were investigating what happened, including whether Renz
was able to get around an alert that is supposed to go off if the ankle
bracelet is removed, he said.
Late Friday
afternoon, state police turned Renz over to federal authorities, who will hold
him for violating the terms of his release, court documents said.
Duncan said the
cases against him will continue in federal and state courts.
The federal public
defenders lawyer assigned to Renz in the child porn case, James Greenwald, did
not return a call seeking comment Friday.
