Joel Rifkin's arrest location

This is the location where serial killer Joel Rifkin was arrested.

It is situated near the intersection of Old Country Road and Washington Avenue in Mineola, New York.

In the early hours of June 28th, 1993, two state police officers were driving along the Southern State Parkway on Long Island when they noticed a tan-colored 1984 Mazda pickup truck with no license plate on the back.

After positioning themselves behind the truck, they switched on their flashers and used the PA system in their patrol car to order the motorist to stop.

However, instead of pulling over, the driver sped up and headed for the northbound exit to Wantagh Avenue.

Realizing that they now had a chase on their hands, the officers called in for backup.

For the next twenty minutes, six patrol cars followed the Mazda truck as it raced through the streets of Wantagh, Levittown, Westbury, and Mineola.

The chase came to an abrupt end after the driver lost control and hit a lamp post at this intersection beside the Nassau County Court House.

Following the impact, the vehicle rolled to a stop on the southern sidewalk of Old Country Road.

When the officers surrounded the truck with their handguns drawn, the male driver agreed to step out and lie face down on the ground.

After checking the man's license, they learned that he was Joel Rifkin, a 34-year-old unemployed gardener who lived in East Meadow.

During an inspection of Rifkin's truck, the officers made a grim discovery. In the back, wrapped in a blue tarp and rope, was a dead body. The remains were so decomposed that the officers were reportedly unable to tell whether the person was black or white.

Shortly after his arrest, Rifkin told the police that the victim was 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani, a sex worker whom he had picked up in Manhattan four days prior. Bresciani's body had lain in a wheelbarrow in his garage for days until the growing smell forced him to act.

According to Rifkin, he was planning on dumping her body at a spot near Republic Airport in Farmingdale. However, the patrol car had noticed his missing license plate while he was en route.

Rifkin's calmness while recalling Bresciani's murder set off alarm bells among investigators. In their minds, he was far too composed and blasé for this to have been his first murder.

Their instincts soon proved to be right, as the 34-year-old readily confessed to murdering 17 sex workers over a four-year period.

Photos

Photos of the street and other related images.

Joel Rifkin's truck

This is an enhanced image of Joel Rifkin's 1984 Mazda B2000 pickup truck.

After overshooting the intersection between Roslyn Road and Old Country Road, he struck a lamp post and rolled to a stop on the sidewalk.

Following his arrest, the police found Tiffany Bresciani's body wrapped in a blue plastic tarp in the bed of the truck.

Old Country Road

This is a Google Street View image of the sidewalk on Old Country Road.

When Rifkin's truck came to a stop, the police surrounded it with their handguns drawn and ordered him to get out.

The arrest took place at around 3.45 a.m.

Arrest

The aerial image above is facing south.

The police report about Rifkin's arrest states that he was driving down Roslyn Road when he attempted to make a left turn onto Old Country Road and head east. However, he lost control during the turn and crashed into a lamp post on the southern side of the road.

Notably, the truck reached speeds of 90 mph during the chase.

Tarp

Bresciani's remains were found wrapped in a blue tarp in the back of the truck.

Rifkin left his house just after 3 a.m. At the time, he was planning on driving to a location near Republic Airport in Farmingdale.

Tiffany Bresciani

Tiffany Bresciani was a sex worker from Louisiana.

The 22-year-old was picked up by Rifkin on Allen Street in Lower Manhattan in the early hours of June 24th, 1993.

When she got into his vehicle, he drove to the parking lot outside of the New York Post newspaper, where he eventually strangled her to death.

Following the murder, he wrapped her body in a blue plastic tarp and left it in a wheelbarrow in his garage for three days.