NEW YORK (PIX11) – A second suspect is linked to the torture of an Italian cryptocurrency millionaire, authorities said.
Police are still searching for a third suspect, who is still at large, according to court records.
Police announced on Saturday that a woman named Beatrice Folchi was taken into police custody but has yet to be charged.
"We declined to prosecute Beatrice Folchi at this time pending further investigation," a spokesperson wrote.
On Friday, a man was taken into police custody in connection with the kidnapping and torture of a 28-year-old tourist from Italy. The tourist had escaped a Manhattan apartment near Mulberry and Prince streets. He said he had been kidnapped and tortured for several weeks.
John Woeltz, a 37-year-old from Kentucky, was arrested and charged with assault, kidnapping, and unlawful imprisonment on Saturday. Attorneys say Woeltz forced the victim to send Bitcoin by threatening the victim’s family, then lured him to New York for the cryptocurrency. Once there, the Italian man was robbed of his electronics and passport and tortured for three weeks, court documents stated.
Investigators say the victim was bound to a chair in a Prince Street apartment where he was shocked with electrical wires, pistol-whipped, cut with a saw, forced to smoke cocaine, and had a gun pointed to his head on multiple occasions, among other forms of physical abuse.
An investigation is ongoing; the third accomplice has yet to be identified.
Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here.
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