Clockwise from above left: Boitumelo McCallum, whose bludgeoned body was found by police in her mother’s apartment at 4 Washington Square Village; on Monday, a detective rang the bell at the Harlem residence of McCallum’s father, but he was out of town; a police car outside Washington Square Village on Monday during the murder investigation.
N.Y.U. murder
The decomposed body of the 20-year-old daughter of two New York University professors was found wrapped in bedclothes in a bedroom of her mother’s Washington Square Village apartment last Sunday.
Boitumelo McCallum, who had been living recently with her mother in the eighth-floor apartment, had been beaten severely about the face sometime on Thurs., Aug. 2, according to police.
The victim’s former boyfriend is a suspect, according to police. The suspect was believed to have had a previous arrest in Westchester, an arrest for marijuana and an arrest on the Upper West Side for assault. He reportedly admitted to a friend that he had killed McCallum, and Sixth Precinct detectives reportedly were questioning the friend on Tuesday afternoon.
The victim’s mother, Teboho Moja, 52, a professor of higher education at N.Y.U.’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and an anti-apartheid activist, was traveling in South Africa this week. Her father, Robert McCallum, 53, an adjunct professor of art education at the Steinhardt School, lives on W. 121st St. and was said on Tuesday to be out of town.
Two women who sublet one of the bedrooms in the apartment called the building super on Sunday because of a foul odor from the victim’s bedroom. The super called 911 after he found the bedroom door locked from the inside.
Police had to enter the bedroom from a balcony and found the wrapped body between the bed and a wall.
A building resident said there had been a noisy party in the apartment on Wednesday that ended in the early hours of Thursday. An Aug. 7 New York Sun article said the women who rented the second bedroom said they had seen someone they believed was the victim’s boyfriend washing his hands in the kitchen on Thursday.
McCallum, born in South Africa, attended Mills College in Oakland, Cal., until spring 2006. Described by neighbors as vivacious and beautiful, she was known as Tumizzle and apparently made a last entry on her MySpace site online on Thursday. John Beckman, N.Y.U. spokesperson, said the victim’s mother was a valued member of the faculty.
“The university has been in touch with her to express its sympathies and she is distraught,” Beckman said.
Washington Square Village is owned by N.Y.U. and houses university faculty, graduate students and non-N.Y.U. residents.
Arrest in shooting
Police arrested Wilfred Santos, 24, and Randy Ramkishun, 17, on Mon., July 30, in connection with the July 8 shooting that injured a 13-year-old girl at 71 Columbia St. in the Samuel Gompers Houses. The suspects, residents of the Gompers complex, were charged with attempted murder. Police are also investigating the July 22 shooting at 100 Pitt St. in the Gompers complex in which a 10-year-old boy was wounded in the arm.
Cold club assault
Davone Jones, 26, of the Bronx, was charged with assault for throwing an ice bucket while on the dance floor at Lotus, 409 W. 14th St., at 3:30 a.m. Sun., July 29, and hitting a woman on the head. Jones got into an argument with the victim, 24, after she asked Jones to move away from her, according to police. The woman’s friend intervened and Jones threw the ice bucket at the friend but missed and hit the victim, police said.
Canal St. trip
A Queens man was injured on Thursday morning Aug. 2 when he tripped at the curb on Broadway and Canal St. and fell into the windshield of a moving police car. The victim, Tong Hong, was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in critical condition with head injuries.
Fake doctor busted
Police arrested Michael Forman, 66, of 113 Jane St., on Thurs., Aug. 2, and charged him with unauthorized medical practice, larceny and sexual abuse. He is charged with telling a woman acquaintance, 23, that he was a gynecologist and obstetrician. He examined her two weeks ago in the beauty salon she manages on Greenwich Ave. put his hands on her neck, breasts and thighs, and diagnosed her with walking pneumonia. Later, he talked the victim into giving him $300 in cash for a check that turned out to be worthless, according to the office of District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Forman was held in lieu of $5,000 bail pending arraignment later this week.
Stuyvesant Town fire
A fire in a fourth-floor apartment at 620 E. 20th St. in Stuyvesant Town at 2:24 p.m. Tues., Aug. 7, brought 12 fire companies and 60 firefighters to the scene. One firefighter was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The fire was declared to be under control at 3:06 p.m. The cause of the fire is under investigation, said a Fire Department spokesperson.
Albert Amateau
