Long Beach man indicted for 'brutally killing' woman in knife attack
The alleged daylight knife attack on the mother of three was witnessed in part by bystanders and an off-duty police captain.
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A 40-year-old Long Beach man has been indicted for murder after prosecutors say he stabbed a 30-year-old woman to death in a brazen daylight attack witnessed in part by bystanders and an off-duty police captain.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Michael McHenry “brutally killed” Juliann Bachmann on the morning of May 16, following a violent series of events that unfolded in a moving car.
Authorities say Bachmann and a friend had picked up McHenry earlier that morning in Long Beach and that he had just moved in with Bachmann and her three children two months prior. She then dropped the friend off at a motel in Shirley around 6:30 a.m., leaving her alone with him.
Less than an hour later, a witness saw a man in the passenger seat grab a woman by the hair and repeatedly hit her in the face while screaming that he was going to kill her.
The witness called 911 to report the scene.
Minutes later, another witness reported seeing the same car with the woman behind the wheel, screaming for help, before it pulled into an auto shop. Prosecutors say McHenry got out, yanked her from the vehicle as she clutched her neck, then he sped off with her still inside.
Officers recovered surveillance footage that depicted the entire alleged encounter.
An off-duty Suffolk County police captain soon spotted the car tailgating him before speeding past. When he looked inside, he allegedly saw the headrest soaked in blood and someone in the back seat in distress.
He followed the vehicle to the Speedway gas station in Yaphank, where McHenry again pulled the woman from the car before being taken into custody.
Bachmann was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital-Suffolk and pronounced dead.
The cause of death, according to the medical examiner's autopsy, was the stab wound to her neck.
A search of the vehicle, which prosecutors say was covered in blood stains, yielded an open tactical knife.
McHenry faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
He has pleaded not guilty.
