Former prisoner arrested in New York grandmother’s murder identified through stolen bag: documents

A former prisoner charged with the shocking murder of a beloved Manhattan grandmother found bound and gagged in her apartment has been identified by a green shopping cart he borrowed from the victim’s home, new court documents show.

Earlier this week, Terrence Moore, 53, was charged with the burglary and murder of Maria Hernandez, 74, who was found beaten and suffocated in her Upper West Side home on January 18.

Moore, who is on life parole for a previous murder conviction, is believed to have broken into the Hernandez building on West 83rd Street and committed the heinous crime along with Brooklyn-based suspect LaShon McKee.

According to the criminal lawsuit against him, Moore was identified based on CCTV footage of him carrying a wheeled bag that Hernandez’s sister, Maria Terrero, identified as belonging to the victim.

“About 20:22 [on Jan. 18] McKee and the same aforementioned man are walking together,” the NYPD said. Rachel Lutz wrote in a complaint about CCTV footage filmed at Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street shortly after the attack.

“Mackey is pulling a green rolling bag/shopping cart while another man is pulling a navy blue Jansport rolling backpack.”

According to a court document, police searched the victim’s home for bags but found nothing.

Investigators reviewed security footage to track McKee, Moore, and their bags days after the murder.

McKee, who was known to residents of the Hernandez home as a former deputy superintendent nicknamed “Frosty,” was arrested on January 21 murder and burglary charges.

Later that day, surveillance footage outside his home on Bergen Street in Brooklyn showed Moore leaving with a green wheeled bag in tow and then entering the building on Dean Street, according to the complaint.

An unnamed employee at the address identified Moore to police as a resident of the building, court documents say.

Moore was arrested and sentenced to prison without bail during his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday. He is due back in court on January 30.

The criminal complaint filed at his arraignment also contains chilling details about McKee’s actions at the Hernandez home on the night of the murder.

One resident, who has not been named, said the man she knew as Frosty came to her door around 7:18 p.m. on the night of the murder.

“Frosty stated that he was angry with the building manager for reporting him to the police about the theft and that he did something in retaliation,” the document says.

“When a resident pointed out that cameras were installed throughout the building, Frosty replied that he took care of it.”

Another second-floor resident stated that she saw McKee and Moore attempt to enter the building earlier in the evening around 5:50 pm.

Hernandez’s death was a terrible shock to her neighbors and family members, who remembered her as a loving and generous person.

“She was a wonderful sister, a wonderful mother, a wonderful grandmother and a wonderful friend,” her sister Terrero told The Post last week.

“It’s sad. It’s unfortunate,” Ballamus Kurum’s neighbor said of the murder.

“It’s crazy how everything went down. I would never have thought, to be honest, that this would happen here – never, never, not here.”