Secrets of the Sliding Door

0:00Tonight on Dateline. I turn on the news and it says high school teacher murdered. I was just distraught, just distraught. You see them bringing her body out. Oh my God, I'm sorry. She was laying on the floor, multiple stab wounds, lots of blood. Mattresses were turned upside down. Drawers were taken out and turned upside down. If it was a burglary, that person took an awfully long time looking for something. There was a strange number on her cell phone. Yes. Who was it? Her tag name was Miss Pumpkin. We told her we needed to talk to her in regards to an investigation. Man, I would like to have been a fly on the wall in that conversation.

0:51Inside that bag was the laptop. There are thousands and thousands of searches to sift through, and my God, Keith, I did it for days. There's a pattern of lies that I'm uncovering. We were in shock. This really can't all be happening. Now we were in bizarro land. A teacher murdered in a case that was a study in secrets. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

1:27Here's Keith Morrison with Secrets of the Sliding Door.

1:36Manhattan. Perhaps the most recognizable cityscape in all the world. And yes, this is a New York story. But not this New York. This one. We're kind of what we would call the forgotten borough. Staten Island, so close to the great moneyed monuments of the city, but really, a world away. It doesn't have the hustle bustle like the rest of the city does. The difference is night and day. These quiet streets seem a haven from the big city and the crime that comes with it. but sometimes the very thing you're trying to escape is already there.

2:29Staten Island is home for many of the city's police and firefighters and teachers, like the remarkable Simonette Mapes Krupe, as Simonette's mother Teresa wanted the whole world to know. She was just an amazing, amazing soul. I always consider her my gift from God. She was, said just about everybody, a giver. Devoted to her students, to her family, to her pets. And she was a dreamer who believed in angels and fairy tales. until a hot July day in 2012. I just came home. My wife is dead. Oh, my God. I think my house was robbed. The man on the 911 call was Jonathan Krupe, Simonette's husband. He'd been running errands and then came home to a nightmare and utter chaos.

3:35I know you're scared, but why do you say she's dead?

3:42The next-door neighbor, Bob Garbarino, heard the commotion. I came out, I came about here, and I saw Krupe standing over there on the phone. And he was just going up and down going, they killed her. They killed her. She's dead. She's dead. He was in like a little bit of hysterics. Joe Metzopoulos was the first detective to arrive to what was, indeed, a horror. Inside the house, there was a female body laying face down in a pool of blood. There was no shell casings or bullet holes. I think the assumption was that she might have been stabbed. I got a phone call from Detective Metzopoulos telling me that we had a homicide.

4:24Detective Michael Burdick got over there pretty quickly, too. It was his turn to take the lead. The amount of stab wounds was excessive. I think you got somebody who's very angry and intent on making sure that she is in fact dead. It fell to Jonathan to break the news to Simonette's mother, Teresa. She rushed to her daughter's house. By the time I got there, the place was full of cops and full of helicopters. Police are still closely guarding the scene of a brutal stabbing death on Staten Island. It was just horrible. Neighbors say her family showed up destroyed and confused. I wasn't thinking straight.

5:08I just wanted to see my daughter. I didn't care where she was, how she looked. I just wanted to touch her one more time. Did you get to? No. Simonette's father, John, a stoic career military man, also raced over, of course. and he found his wife in front of their daughter's house, inconsolable. I grabbed her and she said, they killed our baby, they killed our baby, and just, she collapsed. Because, of course, they couldn't see her, couldn't go inside. Not while the detectives scoured the place for evidence for any kind of clue in all the mess. There was disarray. Drawers were taken out of the kitchen.

5:52Drawers were taken out of dressers. Like a burglar who didn't know what the heck he was looking for or didn't know where to find it or something. I would agree with that. And there was a door open, right? Yeah, the slide-in door was ajar by about two to three inches. I took notice of that. Multiple things were sent for DNA. Knives that were discovered inside of the dishwasher. We swabbed the back handle of the door. While the crime scene was being processed, Detective Mitsopoulos drove a distraught Jonathan to the station. The first thing that I did was I offered my condolences to Jonathan. He seemed like he was just more numb.

6:31Numb. Easy to understand why. In the days after she was killed, Simonette's family would be overwhelmed with so many emotions, grief of course, but also rage. Her mother went to the media with a message for the killer, whoever it was. I will find you. I will get you. You will pay. It's not going to bring my daughter back. But she'll know that her mother will not leave any stone unturned. Turn over enough stones and, well, you never know what you'll uncover. It got worse and worse and worse. It's kind of like Jekyll and Hyde. Eventually, Hyde's going to dominate. He was an animal. He was disgusting.

7:18Disturbing, to say the least. So now we were in bizarro land.

7:35School was out for the summer. So Simonette Mapes-Crupy's students got the news, like the rest of the city, impersonal and devastating. Police say a 29-year-old woman was found dead. I turn on the news and it says, like, high school teacher murdered. Dropped to the floor and just start crying, bawling my eyes out. Simonette was Carmencita Majeed's teacher and was supportive, understanding, kind. It was like, who would kill her? Like, who has a problem with her? Certainly not her students. They adored her. This is von Stephen de Valle. You see them bringing her body out, and you can tell by the body bag, the shape of her body, you know.

8:27Oh my God, I'm sorry. The crime scene here on a busy road in Staten Island was, I don't know, no better word for it, ransacked. This is the NYPD's Mike Cosenza. We're conducting canvases to determine if there are any similarities as far as burglaries in the area. Detectives considered the burglary angle, but the level of violence suggested passion, rage. It just didn't make sense. Thing was, everybody seemed to love Simonette, or Sissy, as her family and close friends called her. As part of our investigation, we have to dig deep into her life, you know, see if she had any secrets. And you know what, Keith?

9:12She was an angel. Everybody thinks their children are special. But I always said that God sent Simonette to me because I needed Simonette. Simonette was so respected she could have worked anywhere. But she chose a school in a high crime section of Brooklyn. There she taught social studies and raised money to help her students. from buying them prom dresses to treating them at restaurants where they'd never been, couldn't afford to be. She explained to him, says, go to school, get your degree, and this can be yours. We called her Mommy Mapes. She would always bring up Disney. And for me, I'm obsessed with Disney.

9:55I remember we would just be in class, bored, and she would love to just break out singing The Little Mermaid. I'm part of your world. Vaughn told us her kindness and encouragement changed his life. He was bullied in school, ready to quit, until Mommy Mapes stepped in. She's like, Vaughn, please, just please don't. You're special. You have to get your education, Vaughn. You don't want to become left behind. Simonette's devotion to others and her deep faith once led her to consider becoming a nun. And then she met him, the love of her life, Jonathan Croupy. Simonette went on a date with him. And she came home that night and she said, Mom, oh my God, he's so nice.

10:40You know, I really like this one. This is Simonette's little brother, John. As a match, how did this look? It looked great. And every time they were together, they always had a good time. As long as my sister was happy, I was a happy brother. I used to tell people I couldn't buy a better side of them all. That's how good he was. Wonderful woman. Great marriage. Still, of course, they had to look at everything, including the husband, standard procedure. But, you know, you've got to treat him with some compassion, to say the least. You hung up, mama. Detectives learned Simonette helped Jonathan get a job teaching English at the same school where she worked.

11:19And he was good, too. Both teachers were known to be charismatic, able to relate to the students on, you know, a deeper level than most. What's up, Simonette? Miss your son? Yeah! He was funny. He would do cartoon voices. I remember one year he dressed up as Wolverine. He was just like a little big kid. His class was a joy. But did he have an alibi? Yes, he did. Jonathan told the police he last saw Simonette when he left their condo at 7.30 in the morning. Assistant DA Wanda DiOlivero was there as Jonathan recounted his day. A busy one. He said, it's our wedding anniversary this weekend. I'm going to get cheap tickets for a Broadway play for my wife and I to attend.

12:10He then went to his school to pick up books for summer school because they had both opted to teach summer school in order to earn some extra income. Upon leaving the school, he had went to get his car inspected. Jonathan also dropped by a sneaker store. and then one final stop before heading home. He tells his wife, be it at least two texts, I'm going to stop at Home Depot and get paint for that painting project that you wanted to do in the bathroom. So he pulls into the Home Depot but decides not to go in because he hadn't heard back from her and comes home. Detectives checked out his story and found video of Jonathan at the school and at the sneaker store, as well as a time-stamped receipt from his car inspection.

13:00The times that he gave us were consistent with the times he was at the locations that he had visited that day. In other words, they looked like a good alibi. It did. Jonathan and Simonette were not wealthy, but if this was a burglary, well, there was something that might have attracted the intruder. Jonathan had a side hustle, selling pricey sneakers. He stored them in the condo. On the top floor, they were very, very expensive designer, and I mean$300,$400,$500 sneakers, dozens of those. So there were sneakers upon sneakers. The first thing we thought was, oh no, he was selling sneakers and some guy came in to rob the sneakers while Simonette was at home.

13:47A burglary turned violent. or did someone set out to kill Simonette because of something she witnessed something she wasn't supposed to see just one week earlier as Simonette and her husband walked from school to their car in one of Brooklyn's most dangerous neighborhoods there was a shooting and they ducked down behind the car once they heard the gunshots go off it was scary it was dangerous

14:28Five days after her murder, a funeral mass was held for Simonette at Our Lady of Pity Roman Catholic Church on Staten Island. An overflow crowd turned out to show their respects. The amount of love that was shown by the school and the students, and our family and friends, obviously, it took me aback. Some of the parents came to Teresa and I and said, you don't know what impact your daughter had on my daughter's life. I never knew. Never. On her way to the funeral, student Carmen Sita Majeed messaged Simonette's husband and fellow teacher, Jonathan. And the message that I had got back was like, your fairy godmother got her wings.

15:15And it just broke me. I remember going up to the gasket and looking at her, and you can tell that her body went through something traumatic. That even hurt me even more. I love this woman. She didn't deserve that. Police were there, a sharp eye out the whole time. Maybe you might get information from a student that is not looking to come forward initially, but might find an opportunity to approach you and see if there's information that could be had. What information? Maybe about the scary things that have been happening around Simonette School in that high-crime neighborhood. Our school was right across from Cypress Projects, so there was, you know, gangs, fights, shootings.

16:09When you stepped out of that building, it was scary. It was dangerous. Were you afraid for her working at such a tough school? Oh, yes. I used to beg her all the time, please, Simonette, quit. Please come to Staten Island to work. But she wouldn't do it. The school where Simonette worked, it could be considered a high crime area. And it wouldn't be unusual to hear gunshots in the distance. Well, yeah. Gangs and so on around there? Yeah, there were gangs everywhere, unfortunately. Just a week before the murder, Simonette witnessed something frightening as she and Jonathan were walking to their car.

16:50There was a shooting nearby, and they ducked down behind the car once they heard the gunshots go off. I was concerned because I know the reality of where she works. I was always afraid for her working in that area. Always. Police didn't think Jonathan and Simonette were targets, but she posted about the incident on Facebook. She didn't say anything describing the shooter, but if it was a gang member and they learned she was there, they sure wouldn't want her talking about it. I assume they went and looked into it, right? Absolutely, yes. They went to check out, you know, well, maybe this was in retaliation for, you know, being present for the drive-by shooting.

17:30Maybe what she saw was enough to get her killed. But then, at the funeral, Simonette's brother John looked around and was amazed. My sister taught several Bloods and Crips. These two organizations do not like each other. I do remember a high-ranking member of the Bloods gang telling my mother that for today, they made a truce to say goodbye to my sister. They respect her that much. That is something. There was roughly 50 of them. That's amazing, really. They never did find out who was shooting whom near the school. She hadn't identified anybody. Neither one of them did. So there would be nobody out there that would even know that they were connected to that drive-by.

18:17These gang members, they're too busy killing each other. They're not worried about any outsiders. They're not hurting any outsiders. So, was the shooting a motive for murdering Simonette? No. But a promising lead emerged when the DNA lab came back with the result from the sample taken from the condo's sliding door. They swapped it. It comes back a mixture of DNA. Some of it would be Jonathan's. There was Jonathan's DNA and an unknown female. In other words, it was not Simonette's DNA. It was shocking because the DNA didn't belong to his wife. So, you know, you say to yourself, well, if it's not Simonette's DNA, then whose DNA is it?

19:02And when investigators searched Simonette's phone, they discovered another unknown female. The contact came up as woman in her cell phone. Woman. Well, that's intriguing. An unknown female's DNA on the door. A phone contact marked only woman. What could it possibly mean? Who was it? So her tag name was Miss Pumpkin.

19:42For a mother in mourning who'd pledged to find her daughter's killer, each passing day without an arrest was torture. It was very, very hard. having to put up with what was going on. I mean, it's not like we've ever been through anything like this before. We didn't know. No, of course not. And months dragged on, right? Months. Yes, months. The detectives had conducted a lot of interviews during that time, trying to find out everything they could about Simonette and her relationships. they also explored electronic devices, both hers and those closest to her. The detectives started looking at all the information.

20:27Who were they calling? Who were they looking up? Who were they emailing? Who were they texting? Secrets are harder to maintain these days. No such thing anymore. No such thing indeed. The search of Semenet's phone is what led to that odd contact listed only as woman. So part of our normal investigation would be to Google the numbers, if they're an unknown number, and see if there's any information that we can uncover. That led to a classified ad on Backpage.com. In the adult services section, the number on Simonette's phone was for an escort. Who was it? So her tag name was Miss Pumpkin. A phone number for an escort named Ms.

21:17Pumpkin on Simonette's phone? Which seemed to make no sense at all. Of course, they had to talk to Ms. Pumpkin. But how, without scaring her off? Their solution? You won't find in any police manual. I was tasked with calling her up and ordering her up as a john in order to get her to show up at a local motel on Staten Island. Say that again? Detective Ksenza and I had made a plan that we would call up Miss Pumpkin and I would order her up as a John in order for her to produce herself at the local motel and think that she was, you know, about to turn a trick. Detectives Burdick and Ksenza headed to the motel.

22:07Ms. Pumpkin was there, expecting to meet a new client. We identified ourselves, told her that we needed to talk to her in regards to an investigation. Man, I would like to have been a fly on the wall in that conversation. How would she take it? She knew what she was there for, which had to do with prostitution, and she didn't want any trouble to come her way. No. The alternative would not be very pleasant for her. No, sir. That is when they told her they were investigating the murder of Simonette Mapes Krupe. Never heard of her, said Miss Pumpkin. And then they asked about Simonette's husband, Jonathan.

22:49Did she know him? Again, a hard no. But then detectives started describing him. She only had one school teacher that she was dating at the time. Well, well, well. We showed her a picture. she knew Jonathan Krupe as Mike. That was the name that he gave her. And suddenly, she knew a whole lot. Jonathan, Mike to Ms. Pumpkin, was a regular client. He was having, in fact, a relationship for multiple years with her. Multiple years with her? Multiple years. Really? The man so in love with his wife, the devoted husband, have been keeping a sex secret from everyone for years. After that shocker, the detectives figured it best to invite Ms.

23:38Pumpkin to the station, get the whole story that way. She showed up and provided them with a wealth of information. When asked when she last saw him, she said the date that his wife was found murdered. The very day Simonette was killed, he was having sex with another woman? Oh, my. But there was more. So normally, Jonathan would call her weeks in advance to arrange a date. On this day, he called her the day of, from a different number, demanded, I need to see you today. Very unusual. Very unusual. So she agreed, and she met him at the local motel. But hadn't Jonathan provided alibis for the whole day?

24:28alibis that certainly did not include a dalliance with Ms. Pumpkin. Well, yes, he did. And his story was mostly backed up by video. Mostly. Investigators were never able to confirm one part of it. The visit to Home Depot. And now they knew why. Ms. Pumpkin was his Home Depot. You got it. Pit stop. With Ms. Pumpkin in the picture, That unknown female DNA recovered from the crime scene suddenly became much more interesting. So detectives collected her DNA. And when the DNA swab was compared to the mixture of DNA on the sliding glass living room door, it came back to Miss Pumpkin. So did you think she could have been involved somehow, that she was just hiding it from you?

25:19So we knew at that time that they were intimate. It's a telltale sign of a good detective to make sure that you let the evidence speak to you and tell you the story. And oh, what a story they were about to hear. So now we were in bizarro land. Wow.

25:49Detectives learned that Simonette's sneaker-collecting, comic-book-loving teacher-husband was in a secret, long-term relationship with an escort named Ms. Pumpkin. Clearly a very bad look for Jonathan. and when Miss Pumpkin's DNA was a match to a sample found at the crime scene? Well, that wasn't a good look for her either. It made me think that she could have been involved or not been involved. Miss Pumpkin admitted she had met Jonathan at his house before, but denied that she was there the day of the murder. So, to see if she was telling the truth, detectives checked her cell phone. And sure enough, it did not ping near the house that day.

26:34So what was her DNA doing there? The answer, said Prosecutor Olivera, was pretty simple. Jonathan put it there, unwittingly. Are you suggesting that, you know, he picked up her DNA when they were intimate together during that meeting that day, went home, put his hands on that sliding glass door, and got her DNA on the door in addition to his? No, not suggesting. I know that's what happened. Ms. Pumpkin was cleared. But Jonathan? Not at all. Detectives were learning that behind the happy facade, his marriage was in crisis, and for reasons other than his secret sex life. One issue was this. Teachers in New York City public schools are required to have a master's degree.

27:26Jonathan and Simonette decided to earn theirs at the College of Staten Island, and she graduated with flying colors. But then discovered Jonathan had registered but never attended classes. This was a big point of contention in the marriage because the gravity of not having your master's degree to paint the picture means you don't have a job. With a deadline approaching, the high school principal gave him an ultimatum. She was to the point where either you get your master's or you're out of here, you're not coming back. Simonette was ready with an ultimatum of her own. She had shared with her mom that she was going to confront him.

28:12As far as Simonette's family knew, that meant confronting him about work and what happened to the money he was spending, supposedly on school. Well, investigators knew now where a lot of it was going. To Ms. Pumpkin. How much money did he spend on this stuff? He spent a lot of money. Her fee was$300 for an hour. Apparently all her money went to the bills and the food, and his money went to his sneakers and his extramarital affairs. Might be a good time to search the house again, go deep this time. It was still a declared crime scene, and Jonathan hadn't set foot in the place since just after the murder.