STATEN ISLAND — A man arrested in Belize was charged with strangling a Staten Island woman almost nine years ago and stuffing her body in a barrel, prosecutors said.
Michael Young, 39, was picked up on an unnrelated matter by authorities in Belize and extradited to the U.S. to be charged with the 2005 murder of Zofia Rogowicka, 47, a law enforcement source said.
Young strangled Rogowicka, who was his uncle's landlord, at her Annadale home in December 2005 then put her body in a shipping barrel and dumped it behind a Coney Island Avenue movie theater in Midwood, a law enforcement source said.
The source did not know what sparked the violence.
He was named a suspect shortly after police discovered Ragowicka's body and he quickly fled to Jamaica, the Staten Island Advance reported.
After his recent arrest in Belize, local police found that he was a wanted man, the source said.
He was put on a plane to Atlanta where US Marshals picked him up and brought him back to New York, the source said.
Young was indicted for murder in the second degree by the district attorney on Tuesday. He's due back in court on Sept. 4.
