Judith Becker was 26 and working as a psychologist in Yonkers, New York, when she was found in her apartment in the fall of 1974, badly beaten and strangled with a stocking. Her parents discovered her, turning a routine visit into the moment they learned she had been murdered. Police quickly focused on Ricardo Silvio Caputo, an Argentine man who had known Becker through her professional work and who had been in the psychiatric system; investigators said he had shown up at her apartment during permitted outings and that Becker’s car was missing after the killing.

Authorities issued a warrant for Caputo, mounted a nationwide alert, and treated him as the central suspect; he evaded capture and the case remained unresolved for years. In 1994 the investigation revived amid links to other 1970s deaths and a Westchester grand jury probe; in 1995 Caputo pleaded guilty in Westchester County Court to killing Becker, admitting he strangled and beat her, and received a sentence described as effectively the rest of his life in prison. Anyone who knew Judith Becker, her work, or her life in Yonkers is asked to come forward with information.