Instagram Honeytrapper Lures NYC Man to 24-Hour Torture and Ransom Ordeal: Prosecutors Claim

A New York man who thought he was heading to an Instagram hook-up instead walked into a 24-hour torture ordeal, prosecutors have alleged.

Court documents obtained by the New York Post accuse 22-year-old Valerie Rosario of setting a honeytrap for a man she lured to her Bronx apartment with the intention of ransoming him for $100k.
Prosecutors say she was part of a gang of four, who targeted the 24-year-old victim after seeing him flash his wealth on social media.

The alleged attack happened on February 7, when Rosario invited the “complete stranger” over to her apartment at 1 AM after connecting with him on the app, they said.

But shortly after he arrived, three men burst into the home with guns and began pistol-whipping the victim; the four then stripped him and put him in a bathtub, before pouring “flammable substances on him, and burned him with a flame,” the criminal complaint claims. It says they also stabbed him multiple times in back, legs and body.
“After multiple hours of torture,” he was moved from the Marble Hill Avenue address to a different location where they then called his family to demand a ransom, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Kluger said at Rosario’s arraignment on Thursday.
According to Kluger, they FaceTimed the victim’s brother, demanding cash as they continued to torture him with the knife.
“Give us one hundred thousand dollars or we will kill him,” they threatened, per the court docs.
Police were able to track down the alleged kidnappers to a location in Queens, where they surrounded a parked van. Inside they said they found Javier Vargas, armed with a knife.
In the back of the van they said they found the victim “unconscious, wrapped in a blanket with tape covering his mouth,” the complaint says. He was “barely breathing,” Kluger added.
The victim was rushed to hospital where he was treated for multiple burn and stab wounds to his face, body, back and legs.
Rosario is facing charges of kidnapping and attempted murder, which she denies.
Her attorney Raymond Loving asked she be released on her own recognizance, pointing out that she lives with her mom and brother and has a full-time job at a dentist’s office.
But Kluger argued that someone who allegedly abducted a complete stranger and “tortured him for 24 hours” should be held without bail.
The judge ordered her remanded in custody until the case is presented before a grand jury this week.
According to The Post, Vargas and another of the alleged accomplices were also remanded after being arrested and charged last week.
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