Inmate faces charge in connection with death
Authorities charge a Rikers Island Correctional Facility inmate in connection with the death of a Copake woman.
GREENPORT >> A 32-year-old Queens man who is an inmate at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in the Bronx has been charged in connection with the death of a Columbia County woman, county Sheriff David P. Bartlett said Tuesday.
The body of Halle P. Schmidt, 21, the Copake woman who was reported missing by family members Sept. 4, was found on Sept. 10 in the area of Old Post Road in Kinderhook. An autopsy concluded she had died of a heroin overdose.
Authorities said Schmidt had been last seen on foot in the area of state Routes 66 and 23B in Greenport during the early morning hours of Sept. 3.
On Tuesday, authorities charged Rasheem Cotman, 32, of Queens, with concealment of a human corpse, a felony. Cotman, an inmate at Rikers Island, had made “admissions as to his involvement with this case” when he was interviewed by investigators on Sept. 9, Bartlett said, leading police to the discovery of her body.
Cotman was transported back to Columbia County by sheriff’s investigators, arraigned before Kinderhook Town Justice Lisa Millsand sent to the Columbia County Jail with no bail pending a further court appearance.