Woman killed and abandoned in Syracuse park, seen with man at Airbnb across the street

Syracuse, NY – Before Joselyn Jhoana Toaquiza disappeared, she met an old classmate on her 21st birthday Tuesday.

Then she disappeared.

One of the last places Toaquiza was seen was Tuesday afternoon, when he and a man entered an Airbnb on Hawley Avenue on Syracuse’s north side, according to surveillance video the owner showed to his family and police.

Her body was found Saturday in Lincoln Park, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Monday. The Airbnb at 916 Hawley Ave. is diagonally across from the park.

Syracuse police searched the park Saturday afternoon after the body was found. Police have not released any further details about the body found in the park other than that they are treating the case as a homicide.

The video from the Airbnb was shared online by family and friends when Toaquiza was reported missing last week before her body was found in the park.

The video shows Toaquiza and a man entering the Airbnb at 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday. They were both talking on the phone as they walked up the driveway. The man appears to look at the security camera for a few seconds.

Three hours later, the video shows the man carrying Toaquiza on his back, her arms and legs wrapped around him. She appears limp and not moving. It is not possible to say whether she is still alive.

The man returned home without Toaquiza at around 7:45 p.m. Shortly after, he left the house in new clothes and got into the passenger side of a waiting minivan.

Idania Fernandez Rodriguez, who owns the Hawley Avenue home, said she knew nothing about what happened other than what was shown on surveillance video. She said she gave the video to the woman’s family and police.

“I pray to God that the perpetrator is caught and brought to justice,” Fernandez Rodridguez wrote in a text message in Spanish. She declined further comment.

The surveillance video was shared with Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. It was also embedded in a TikTok post from an Ecuadorian news account. A family member said in the TikTok post that Toaquiza was seen in the video with a man who was one of her classmates in Ecuador.

The family member said the man had traveled from Maryland to visit Toaquiza for her birthday.

Police spokesman Sergeant Thomas Blake said over the weekend that investigators were “aware” of the video. He declined further comment.

Toaquiza’s uncle, Paul Toaquiza, said she lived with him, his wife and children on the north side of town. They immigrated from Ecuador last year to seek better economic opportunities, he said.

Editor Jon Moss covers breaking news, crime and public safety. He can be reached at [email protected] or @mossjon7.