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A Shocking Murder at the Jumeirah Essex House

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 160 Central Park S [map], New York, ny, United States, 10019
September 21, 2009 at 9:04 AM | by | Comments (0)

A sad and ugly truth about hotels is that they are often unwilling hosts to murder scenes. But the murder of a woman at the posh Jumeirah Essex House hotel off Central Park over the weekend has us rattled because the hotel's housekeeping chief has been charged with the crime. The New York Times reports:

The suspect, Derrick W. Praileau, 29, of 1521 White Plains Road, in the Bronx, was taken to Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday afternoon and later charged with second-degree murder in the death of the woman, Andree Bejjani, whose body was found on Saturday in a 10th-floor apartment at the Jumeirah Essex House, where Mr. Praileau worked. He was ordered held without bail.

Investigators were able to link Praileau, who has worked at the hotel since he was 17, to the crime by studying the key card use of employees at the hotel and surveillance tapes. The victim, who is from Dubai, was temporarily living in one of the hotel's condos owned by her sister. The hotel was fully cooperative with the investigation and has released a statement offering their condolences to the victim's family.

A HotelChatter tipster actually walked by the hotel on Saturday night and had this to say about the scene:

I hadn't read about it yet online cause I hadn't been online yet that day, but we walked right under the hotel door canopy and knew something was up because of two NYCPD "Crime Scene" vans parked out front and reporters milling about, bored and waiting to report again for the 11pm news. We got about 30 feet beyond the doors before looking up "Jumeirah Essex" on Google News and reading all the details before we had even left the block. It was kind of a downer on what was an otherwise nice evening stroll around Central Park South area.

Meanwhile, a guest told the NY Times that the hotel was doing all that it could to maintain normalcy yesterday keeping the bar and restaurant open.

[Photo: William Van Bergen]

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