‘AX’ MURDERED
Man fired as building super kills his replacement: cops
Once Keith Floyd was fired last year, his replacement became a dead man walking.
The 40-year-old Brooklyn man, furious over his dismissal as a building superintendent, strangled his successor and buried the man’s body in a shallow grave behind his grandmom’s Bushwick home, authorities charged Thursday.
Floyd, one day after his Wednesday arrest, was accused of murder and concealing the body of Daniel Rivera, 41, last October. Floyd’s sister Adrianna was charged with aiding in the coverup by helping to move the victim’s body to a maksehift final resting place dug with a shovel and a pick ax.
The genial Rivera was promoted from a porter’s job to super for three buildings only days before his slaying, after Floyd was sent packing, said his close friend and ex-boss Joseph Foglia, 38.
“He replaced the guy in the job, and his body was found in the backyard of the guy’s relative,” said Foglia, who keeps Rivera’s ashes in his Brooklyn office. “Daniel was helpful, had a great heart. I’m still sad. It was a tragic loss of life for no reason whatsoever.”
Adrianna Floyd, 36, also of Brooklyn, faces charges of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. The sick siblings were linked to the crimes by video surveillance footage, DNA evidence and fingerprints, a criminal complaint charged. The demented duo moved the body and the victim’s personal property “through multiple locations to hide the evidence” of the killing, the complaint alleged.
Rivera’s body was recovered from the grandma’s backyard on Oct. 6 after a tipster called police to report he was strangled in a building on Himrod St. and then relocated to the burial spot.
An NYPD cadaver dog led detectives to the location where Rivera’s decomposing remains were wrapped in two garbage bags — one for his body, the second placed over his head. A can of air freshener was discovered near the grave.
Relatives of the suspects said brother and sister were “pretty close” before becoming alleged partners in crime.
“Whenever they see each other, they always hug,” said Adrianna’s son Quamieke. “That is really crazy.”
Quamieke, 19, told the Daily News his mother and his uncle appeared as surprised as the rest of the neighborhood by the Rivera killing.
The pair “seemed shocked” when the body was found, he recalled in an interview at his mother’s house. “Everybody was over there trying to figure out what happened, how a body got in the backyard.
“I don’t think he did it,” Quamieke said of his uncle Keith. “I just have a feeling, and he’s a good person. (Adrianna) wouldn’t do it either. That’s crazy just to hear it.”
Rivera was reported missing Sept. 22. His phone was used a few days later to send a bizarre resignation via text message to his boss. Cops suspect the killer sent the postmortem message. Defense attorney Bernard Udall said the case against Floyd is less than overwhelming: “There’s very little evidence.”