On January 5, 1973, the life of 30-year-old Sandra Lee Postell, a female also known as Sandy Lee Barbery, was brutally cut short in a motel room in Delray Beach, Florida. Her death was not an isolated act of violence but one in a series of killings committed by a man who moved between states, leaving a trail of victims. For months, the full story behind Sandra’s murder remained unknown, a painful question mark for those who knew her.
The answer came eight months later and hundreds of
miles away. On September 8, 1973, two teenagers discovered a man’s body in a field in Perinton, New York. The man, identified as 39-year-old Carmello DeJesus, had died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Next to his body lay a gun, a half-empty bottle of whiskey, and a Spanish-language Bible. Tucked inside the Bible was a suicide note addressed to his mother and siblings in Puerto Rico.
In the note, DeJesus, a career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1960, confessed to the murders of four women. He wrote that he wanted to end his life to prevent himself from killing anyone else. He named three of his victims, providing the dates and locations of their deaths. One of those names was Sandra Postell. The confession brought a grim resolution to the Delray Beach case, identifying Sandra's killer as a serial murderer.
Investigators learned that DeJesus, who also used aliases like Antonio Angel DeJesus and Jimenez DeJesus, had a history of violence and had been a fugitive for nearly two years. His killing spree began on September 17, 1971, in Bridgeton, New Jersey, when he shot and killed his girlfriend, Octavia Lloyd, during a confrontation at her home. After Lloyd's murder, DeJesus went on the run, eluding a manhunt that spanned multiple states, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
In January 1973, he surfaced in Delray Beach, where he was staying at a motel with Sandra. An argument between the two escalated with fatal consequences when DeJesus slit Sandra's throat and once again fled the scene. His final known victim was Milagros Inez Pena, a single mother he murdered in Camden, New Jersey, on September 1, 1973, just a week before his suicide.
DeJesus’s confession provided law enforcement in Florida and New Jersey with the key to solving three homicides. While his suicide meant he would never face a trial for his crimes, it closed the cases of Sandra Lee Postell, Octavia Lloyd, and Milagros Inez Pena. The identity of the fourth victim mentioned in his note remains a mystery to this day, an unsolved piece of a violent cross-country tragedy.
