Kriti Mehrotra
When 29-year-old Simeonette Mapes-Crupi was found dead in her New Springville home in Staten Island, New York, her entire community was left utterly baffled and heartbroken. That’s because she had not only been pushed down a flight of stairs but also stabbed 15 times before being left to bleed out at the hands of her husband of nearly 5 years, Jonathan Crupi. However, as chronicled in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Secrets of the Sliding Door,’ it wasn’t until sex worker Miss Pumpkin revealed her connection to him that officials were finally able to bring him to justice.
Jonathan Crupi Became a Suspect in His Wife’s Murder Almost Immediately
It was at around 2:30 pm on July 5, 2012, when Jonathan Crupi dialed 911 to report that he had just come home to find it completely ransacked and his wife in a pool of her own blood. His exact words were, “I just came home, my wife is dead… Oh my God. I think my house was robbed,” but as soon as officials arrived at the scene, they knew something was awry. After all, not only did they deem the husband’s behavior strange, but they were also certain the home had been staged since blank bank cheques, cash, credit cards, and jewelry were all openly strewn around.
The only sign of something possibly amiss was that the back glass sliding door was ajar, as Jonathan vehemently asserted it was closed when he had left home at 7:30 in the morning. During his subsequent routine questioning by investigators, he detailed all his whereabouts from before his call, telling them he had started the day by getting his car inspected. According to his accounts, he subsequently went to the school where he was employed as an English teacher to pick up some supplies before doing some shopping and visiting the Home Depot near Charleston.
Considering Jonathan was Simeonette Mapes-Crupi’s husband and arguably the last person to see her alive, his alibi was carefully looked into, just for it to come to light that he had lied. While he had indeed gotten his car checked that fateful morning before arriving at the school on time, there were no supplies to pick up since they had already been moved days prior. Detectives then uncovered that all he did at school was access the computer room to search about reselling sneakers and hip-hop music, but after he left, he also never made it to Home Depot. This made them look into him as well as his marriage further because there was no reason for him to lie if he had nothing to hide.
Miss Pumpkin Was an Escort With Whom Jonathan Crupi Met Regularly
That’s when officials discovered that Jonathan and Simeonette’s union was far from perfect, as there were allegations of him frequently meeting sex workers and constantly lying to her. In fact, from the latter’s mother, they heard that he had even taken advantage of her by not attending classes for a Master’s in Education from the College of Staten Island, which she had paid for. The couple had reportedly decided to enroll at this institution together in the hopes of securing better opportunities in the future, yet he never paid much attention to it at all, let alone earn his degree.
According to Simeonette’s mother, the 29-year-old social studies high school teacher had learned about this on July 2, two days before she and Jonathan left a party early owing to some issues. It is believed that she had also learned about his infidelities during this time, so she decided to confront him regarding every bit of his betrayal at home, which culminated in her demise. However, this was only a hypothesis for investigators at first, that is, until they found out that she had Googled a local number, which she had even saved in her phone simply as “Woman.”
They decided to investigate this angle, just for it to come out that this number belonged to a sex worker who went by the name of “Miss Pumpkin” – she even had a web page to secure new clients. Therefore, knowing this was important, detectives decided to pose as new clients and set up a meeting with her at a hotel on August 15, which is where they told her they had some questions. Thankfully, she agreed to be interviewed at a nearby precinct without any issues, and as soon as she was shown Jonathan’s picture, she conceded she knew him as a regular client called Mike.
Miss Pumpkin Willingly Gave Statements and DNA Samples to Help Authorities
In fact, Miss Pumpkin also told officials that she had been having encounters with “Mike” for the past two years, with the most recent being on July 5, 2012 – he’d set up a rendezvous for 12:45 am. This was the same time Jonathan had claimed to be at Home Depot, making the authorities believe he had lied because he had decided to meet another woman while knowing his wife was already dead. In other words, they came to the hypothesis that he killed Simeonette after she confronted him about Miss Pumpkin and his deceptions, after which he set up the scene as a likely robbery gone wrong, tried to establish an alibi, and engaged with an escort before returning home to dial 911.
As if that’s not enough, by this point, detectives had already dusted the ajar glass sliding door at the back for prints or DNA and sent it for analysis, the results of which were two separate DNA profiles. While one was Jonathan’s, the other was confirmed to be Miss Pumpkin’s after she agreed to do a swab in August itself, which further helped officials bring matters to a possible close. The only other thing they required before making an arrest was something concrete that proved Jonathan’s connection with the sex worker, which they found in the form of a throwaway cell phone during a search of the Crupi home later on. The call log from this phone verified every aspect of Miss Pumpkin’s statements, resulting in his arrest in November 2012. A little less than 3 years later, all this, along with other pieces of evidence, helped a jury convict Jonathan of second-degree murder, for which he was sentenced to 25 years to life.
Read More: Simeonette Mapes-Crupi Murder Details and Investigation Timeline
