Federal authorities arrested two people on Wednesday in connection with the 2018 murder of a Queens resident whose body was dumped in Canarsie Park.
The feds arraigned 33-year-old Cory Martin and 32-year-old Adelle Anderson in Brooklyn Federal Court on Nov. 4 after arresting them in Trenton, New Jersey. The two were charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the murder of 26-year-old Brandy Odom, whose body was found dismembered in Canarsie Park in April 2018.
Federal court papers state that Anderson and Martin employed Odom as a sex worker, and attempted to take out two life insurance policies on Odom before killing her. The two then allegedly claimed to be her blood relative in order to collect the claims made on her life, valued at $200,000.
Authorities said the murder is being investigated for the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. Odom’s cause of death was homicidal asphyxia and her body was posthumously dismembered, according to court papers.
Odom’s killing sent shockwaves through Canarsie when, on the morning of April 9, 2018, just her torso was discovered by a passerby.
“I thought it was a doll,” said Robert Clouden, of Canarsie, who saw in the morning what police later identified as a dead body. “The torso was very small, and I didn’t see any limbs. I thought it was a doll someone discarded.”
Days later, more than 100 of Odom’s friends and family members gathered at the park to call for justice.
“You don’t cut somebody up like that,” said her uncle Anthony Jackson, who attended the vigil. “They need to be brought to justice.”
The defendants face a minimum of 22 years if convicted for the wire fraud conspiracy charges.
