Fatal Revere hit and run suspect to be arraigned

REVERE – A former Winthrop woman allegedly involved with the fatal hit and run death of a Revere man in 2006 will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court Monday.Milena Johana Henao Giraldo, 27, faces charges of motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident causing death.Last week, Giraldo was arrested by the New York Police Department on a warrant that was issued shortly after her June 28, 2007 indictment for the death of George Azarian, 61 on Dec. 31, 2006.Giraldo had been living in an apartment at 31-45 Crescent St., in Queens, N.Y. in the months before her arrest on Jan. 18, according to authorities.It is unclear whether Giraldo turned herself in to police or if she was picked up.At the time of the accident, authorities said Azarian was crossing Ocean Avenue at the Shirley Avenue crosswalk when Giraldo struck him from behind the wheel of a silver 2000 Dodge Intrepid registered to a friend’s mother, and kept going.A surveillance camera on a nearby building captured the incident on tape. Enhancement of that footage helped investigators establish the make, model, and color of the suspect’s vehicle.The license plate number was unclear, so investigators undertook a methodical search for every single silver Dodge Intrepid between the years of 1998-2004 that were registered in Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop.Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley credited Trooper Joel Balducci for his work to locate the car and identify its driver.”It was classic shoe-leather detective work,” he said. “Where high technology left our questions unanswered, Trooper Balducci dug in and kept searching.”Last February, detectives arrived at the home of a Winthrop woman who had such a vehicle registered in her name. After speaking to the woman’s daughter, detectives learned that the car was at an East Boston garage having its speedometer repaired.After visiting the garage, detectives were told that the car had been dropped off on Feb. 1 by two women for repairs to the front windshield, right headlight, and hood.Employees of the garage led the detectives to a dumpster where the damaged and dented car parts had been discarded, which were later determined to be consistent with an impact such as the one captured on the surveillance tape.The detectives returned to the Winthrop residence and spoke with the husband of the registered owner, who said his wife had registered the car as a favor to save his daughter’s friend, Giraldo, money on the insurance.Focusing their attention on Giraldo, detectives quickly learned that she had failed to give a friend a ride to work on New Year’s Eve as expected.In addition, Giraldo had also failed to appear at her own job as a waitress at a Salem restaurant, telling her boss that she had been in an accident.Detectives later learned that after they visited the Winthrop home where they had spoken to her daughter in Giraldo’s presence, Giraldo had become visibly anxious to retrieve the car from the East Boston garage.Giraldo and two friends allegedly took a taxi to the garage, where the friends waited across the street while Giraldo went to pick it up.She never returned.Prior to Azarian’s death, he reportedly lived in a small apartment above the Shipwreck bar on Revere Beach Boulevard for 15 years after his mother died.His landlord, and Shipwreck bar owner Louis Padova, who had looked after Azarian, said he was returning home from his usual breakfast at Bagel Bin Deli when he was killed.