Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani crime scene

Crime Scene Location The Bronx, New York

This is the location where the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, shot Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani.

It is situated outside 1878 Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx, New York.

Esau (20) and Suriani (18) had been dating for three years.

On the night of April 15th, 1977, the couple went to a movie. At around 3 a.m., they parked on this narrow, tree-covered road near Suriani's apartment building.

As they were sitting in their Mercury Montego, Berkowitz walked up to the driver's side window and opened fire with his revolver.

This Google Street View image of the Hutchinson River Parkway service road was captured in October 2019.

Suriani was shot twice in the head and died almost instantly. Esau suffered a critical head injury and succumbed to his wounds two hours later at Jacobi Hospital.

Alexander Esau was a 20-year-old tow truck operator. He had recently graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School after studying architecture. At the time of his death, he was living with his father, Rudolf, at 352 West 46th Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Rudolf passed away in 1990. The father and son are buried together at Fairview Memorial Park and Mausoleum in New Jersey.
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A neighbor heard the shots and immediately called the police.

The shooting took place just two blocks from where Donna Lauria had been killed eight months previously.

The double homicide terrified the tightly knit Italian-American neighborhood. Residents stopped sitting on their stoops, and parents forbade their children from meeting each other outside.

Esau and Suriani shooting — This is a west-facing aerial image of Pelham Bay. The shooting took place a few blocks away from where Berkowitz had killed Lauria eight months earlier.

By that point, everyone was aware that someone was randomly targeting young couples in the Bronx and Queens.

Some newspapers had started calling him a "sniper." Others nicknamed him "the .44 caliber killer."

In less than a year, he had murdered Donna Lauria, Christine Freund, and Virginia Voskerichian with a .44 caliber revolver.

Others, such as Joanne Lomino and Donna DeMasi, were wounded in similar ambush attacks.

Now, he had senselessly gunned down yet another couple with the exact same weapon.

Valentina Suriani was an 18-year-old student who lived on the 12th floor of this apartment building at 1950 Hutchinson River Parkway. She and her family had moved to Pelham Bay five years prior. The shooting took place roughly 200 yards (185 meters) south of this location. At the time of her death, she was studying acting at Lehman College. Locals described Suriani as a quiet and friendly girl who mostly hung around with kids from her old neighborhood.
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The Esau-Suriani shooting was significant, as it was the first time that Berkowitz communicated with the police.

At the crime scene, detectives discovered a four-page letter that the killer had handwritten in block capitals.

In his rambling, poorly spelled letter, Berkowitz identified himself as the Son of Sam and promised to continue his "work" until he was killed.

Son of Sam letter — When the police arrived at the crime scene, they discovered a white envelope in the middle of the road. Inside, there was a four-page letter addressed to NYPD Captain Joseph Borrelli. The letter made it clear that the killer was paying close attention to the media coverage about his crimes.

Although the NYPD initially withheld the letter from the public, tabloid newspapers used their inside sources to glean information about some of its contents.

From that point on, the media began referring to the killer by his self-given moniker, the Son of Sam.