Day: September 23, 2024

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Leonardo Luna, 22, was picking up a passenger in Brooklyn at around 2 p.m. on June 16, 1990, when he suddenly radioed back to his dispatcher that he was canceling the call in favor of a different, mysterious pickup of his own.

According to NYPD Detective John Hidalgo, that was the last time anyone heard from him.

“In some circles, it might have been weird,” Hidalgo said. “Regardless, he disregarded the original call that came in and went and then is not heard of.”

Not long after his last dispatch, Luna was found dead inside his car near Owl’s Head Park on 68th Street in Bay Ridge. Thirty-four years after his killing, the NYPD is still looking for the person responsible — and Hidalgo, who is assigned to the case, refuses to let the murdered cabbie be forgotten.

Inside the case

About an hour after Luna canceled his scheduled pickup on June 16, 1990, his car was found on 68th Street. At first glance, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The engine was turned off, and it was parked neatly on the curb.

But a passing pedestrian noticed Luna slumped over in the driver’s seat. Responding officers determined that Luna had been stabbed multiple times.

Robbery did not appear to be the motive; police said Luna was still wearing his jewelry, and had money in his wallet when he was found.

“The fact that his property was still there, that really tells me that it wasn’t a robbery,” Hidalgo said, adding that the perpetrator may have well been the person he had intended to pick up. “We know that he disregarded the original call. We know he was saying that he was picking up another call. So, it only leads me to think that someone got in there.”

The year Luna was murdered, 1990, saw the highest reported homicide rates in New York City’s history since the NYPD began recording crime statistics. The department tallied 2,605 homicides in 1990, an average of seven murders per day — an amount that overwhelmed homicide detectives with cases to solve, with Luna’s killing being just one of them.

Much has changed in the last 34 years. The city’s murder rate is a fraction of what it was in 1990, with just 386 murders reported in 2023. Yet that comes with little consolation to those close to Luna, and Hidalgo — a member of the NYPD Cold Case Homicide Squad — is working hard to finally bring his killer to justice.

Hidalgo says he has learned a lot about Luna since he has taken on the mystery that continues to persist over three decades later. Family and friends affectionately dubbed Luna “Tony,” who worked as a cabbie to make ends meet for at least six months. He was a loving brother who grew up not far from where he was killed, leaving a hole in the hearts of all who knew him.

Throughout the investigation, cops have accumulated evidence that has been analyzed to detect genetic material that may, one day, help them find Luna’s killer.

For now, police are also asking the public for help, for anyone who might remember that fateful day in 1990, or who knew Luna, to come forward.

“I’m hoping that with public’s help, even if somebody picks up a paper and says, ‘Oh, I remember that,’ and that would just maybe bring something to light,” Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo also had a message for the person who committed the act on the chance that they are reading amNewYork Metro.

“One day, this person, or persons that could have been involved, one day, they will meet their maker. And you know, it would be something to come forward and just come clean,” Hidalgo said.

Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit information online via the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.