Andre Melendez

Andre Melendez

Andre Melendez was a member of the Club Kids and purported drug dealer. He was murdered by Michael Alig and Robert Riggs on March 17, 1996. Alig claimed the killing was in self-defense, but he later admitted to having committed manslaughter.

About Andre Melendez in brief

Summary Andre MelendezAndre \”Angel\” Melendez was a member of the Club Kids and purported drug dealer. He was murdered by Michael Alig and Robert \”Freeze\” Riggs on March 17, 1996. Alig claimed the killing was in self-defense, but he later admitted to having committed manslaughter. Melendez purportedly became a drug dealer during the early 1990s after he met Peter Gatien, owner of The Limelight and several other nightclubs in New York City, and became a regular dealer in Gatien’s clubs. The police recount the discovery by a group of children at the beach at Miller Field, Staten Island, of a box containing the remains of Andre Melendez, in March 1996. In August 1996, an conversation secretly taped by the District Attorney’s office implicating Melendez in a drug-dealing venture in a New York club was secretly taped.

On December 5, 1996, the police arrested Alig at the motel and later hours later, Riggs in Manhattan, and later confessed to the police he and Alig had killed Melendez and disposed of the body in a panic and dispose of the remains in the Hudson River. The two then stripped Melendez’s body and placed it in the bathtub, where it remained for 5–7 days. The following day, they wrapped the upper body in the sheet and plastic garbage bag, placed the box in a Yellow Cab, and threw the box into the river.