As the manhunt closed in on the sex offender parolee accused of murdering an elderly Queens couple and setting their home on fire, he bought a ticket to an animated religious children’s movie, using the victims’ stolen credit card, a police source said Thursday.
Jamel McGriff slipped into Manhattan’s Regal Union Square movie theater about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and purchased a ticket for “Light of the World,” a feature film about Jesus Christ, according to the source. He was nabbed in Times Square about two hours later.
On Thursday afternoon, McGriff, 42, was hit with a slew of charges, including murder, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson and identity theft.
While on the run for two days, the NYPD was tracking every credit card purchase the suspect made, a basic investigative step that led to his arrest in Times Square by officers who recognized him from the numerous surveillance photos that had been blasted to their smartphones in the wake of the Monday slayings.
McGriff, police said, showed up at the home of Frank Olten, 76, and his wife Maureen Olten, 77, asking to be let in so he could charge his phone — a ruse that minutes earlier he tried without luck at a different house on the same block on 254th St. near 87th Drive.
Frank Olten appeared to not fall for the ruse but police said McGriff shove him inside. About five hours later, police said, McGriff exited a back door after setting fire to their home. Responding firefighters found the couple dead inside.
The husband was tied to a pole in the basement and had been stabbed numerous times. His wife was found laying on the living room floor, though it’s not yet clear if she too had been stabbed.
McGriff was publicly identified as the wanted suspect on Tuesday, the same day the suspect had been seen in the Bronx selling two cell phones at a pawn shop on E. Fordham Road near Decatur Ave., not far from the shelter where he had been staying.
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