Kendall Francois' house

This is Kendall Francois' former house.

It is located at 99 Fulton Avenue in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Francois, who was nicknamed "The Poughkeepsie Killer", murdered eight women between 1996 and 1998.

His victims, who were all sex workers, were found stashed away in the crawlspace and attic.

The 27-year-old lived in this house with his parents and older sister.

Police reports indicate that the inside of the house smelled putrid because the rooms and hallways were filled with garbage. Empty bottles, food, piles of clothes, old newspapers, and broken furniture were strewn everywhere. The cabinets, sinks, and closets were also filled with junk.

The stench was so overpowering that investigators had to put on anti-putrefaction masks before entering the property.

This may explain why Francois' family did not smell the decomposing remains of his victims.

His killing spree came to an end on September 1st, 1998, after a woman he tried to strangle to death in his bedroom broke free and convinced him to let her go.

Francois seemingly agreed to drive the woman back to the location where he had picked her up. However, she jumped out of the vehicle and ran away while they were en route.

Following his arrest, he quickly confessed to the murders.

His involvement did not come as a huge surprise to detectives, as he was already a suspect due to his reputation for being violent toward sex workers.

One year earlier, the police had surveilled his home on Fulton Avenue while investigating the disappearance of a local sex worker. Although they looked around the property, they failed to find anything to justify a search warrant.

The police arrived at this address in the early hours of September 2nd, 1998, and immediately began searching the house. After finding his victims' remains, they charged the 27-year-old with eight counts of first-degree murder.

In 2000, Francois agreed to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. Shortly afterwards, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

During legal proceedings, Francois's lawyer told the court that his client had HIV.

It is likely that he contracted the virus from having unprotected sex with escorts. It is also possible that one of his victims gave it to him.

In 2014, Kendall Francois died from an AIDS-related illness at the age of 43.

Photos

Photos of the house and other related images.

99 Fulton Avenue

This Google Street View image of 99 Fulton Avenue was taken in September 2017.

The house was built in 1920. It is 1,600 square feet in size and has three bedrooms.

One year after Francois' arrest, the property was sold for just $14,500. The new owners then renovated the property and sold it for $105,000 roughly one year later.

On the right, you can see a photograph of the forensics team, who had to wear anti-putrefaction masks. Curious passersby who stopped to see what was going on were so repulsed by the smell that they had to back away from the house.

Kendall Francois

Kendall Francois was a large man. Judging by one of his mugshots, he was about 6 feet 4 inches tall. Growing up, he was repeatedly teased about his size.

In 1989, he joined the United States Army. However, he was discharged five years later due to his obesity.

In April 1996, he became a hall and detention monitor at Arlington Middle School on Lamb Road.

The students there named him "Stinky" because of his smell.

Although he was reportedly quiet and pleasant, there were times when he acted inappropriately around some of the girls. For example, he would sometimes touch their hair, tell sexual jokes, and make inappropriate remarks.

Francois frequently picked up sex workers. Some of his victims considered him to be a regular client of theirs.

His first victim was 30-year-old Wendy Meyers, whom he strangled to death during an argument about money. Afterwards, he put her body into a garbage bag and carried it up into his attic.

Victims

Francois' victims were Wendy Meyers (30), Gina Barone (29), Catherine Marsh (31), Kathleen Hurley (47), Mary Healey Giaccone (29), Sandra Jean French (51), Audrey Pugliese (34), and Catina Newmaster (25).

Note that we were unable to find a photograph of Pugliese.

All of the women were sex workers. Many of them also had a history of drug abuse.

The first three women were stashed in Francois' attic. When that became crowded, he started using the crawlspace underneath his porch.

Initially, the police believed that another missing woman named Michelle Eason was also one of his victims.

However, they eventually rowed back on that opinion because 1) Eason's body wasn't found inside the house, and 2) she was African American, while the other women were all white.