SUSPECT IN QNS. TRIPLE KILLING IS ARRESTED
Cuffed at lobster house, faces extradition to N.Y. after bloodbath in his girlfriend’s basement
The hulking fugitive wanted for a gruesome Queens triple homicide was busted inside a Maine lobster house after a tip and a trip to New England ended a sixday manhunt for the suspect, police said Friday.
The 6-foot, 280-pound Travis Blake, 29, was taken into custody Thursday evening in the restaurant about 500 miles north of the city. The decomposing bodies of three victims were found June 24 inside a Queens basement where he was renting space from girlfriend Karlene Barnett.
The suspect, a Brooklyn Navy Yard worker, was handcuffed without incident in Bar Harbor, Maine, and awaiting extradition to New York, officials said. The hearing on his return was not expected until after the Fourth of July, said court sources.
Cops said the tip led investigators north in the search for Blake, who had a bizarre obsession with the military without serving even a day in the armed forces.
He posted multiple photos on social media wearing military-style fatigues and spoke often about his non-existent service career — even telling one of Barnett’s relatives before the killing spree that he was headed to Maine for Army reserve training in June.
“It’s shocking ... Everything was a lie,” said Barnett’s nephew O’Neil Bonner, who discovered the corpses with a cousin inside the South Jamaica home. “We knew nothing about him, really.”
Barnett, 55, and her son Dervon Brightly, 35, were stabbed multiple times in the basement, while family friend Varshana “Brittany” Malcolm, 22 was found dead in a bedroom with her hands bound together and her mouth duct-taped, police said. The young victim was visiting from her home on the island of Jamaica.
“Whatever he did, he looked like he sat there and waited for her,” said Bonner. “Premeditated. It had to be premeditated.”
Bonner, an MTA bus operator, said he heard from a work colleague of his aunt that she tried to evict Blake prior to the killings. Investigators said they believed Blake came to the home at some point to pick up his belongings before the visit turned into a bloodbath.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said the murder suspect mentioned his imaginary training as a soldier in an ominous conversation with Navy Yard co-workers.
“At his work he’s making statements to his fellow employees about how if somebody is cheating on him he would use his military skills to kill them,” said Essig.
Bonner also recalled Blake military obsession once the man moved into his aunt’s home, and said he initially seemed like a good guy.
“I never got a bad vibe from him,” said Bonner. “He was very soft-spoken.”
The NYPD had publicly identified Blake as the suspect in the brutal stabbing murders one day before his arrest.
Authorities said the bodies were likely decomposing for about three days before their discovery last Friday inside the home on 155th St. near 116th Road.
According to police, the murder suspect had no previous arrest record.
A memorial of candles, balloons and photos of Dervon Brightly remained outside the home Friday as a neighbor cheered Blake’s incarceration.
“Somebody just told me,” she said. “Eating lobster there, in Maine! How do people do that? It’s like the Last Supper. He already knows he’s going to be arrested.”
The arrest came as a relief to Bonner and his cousin, who was particularly afraid that Blake was still in the area. The family was left now to make funeral arrangements, and Bonner wants to know what set off the gruesome rampage.
“What’s the reason?” he asked. “Even if you were mad at my aunt, what did (her) son do to you? What did Varshana do to you? Why would you do this? It’s just sad.”