A housekeeping manager has admitted to strangling and slashing a well-heeled businesswoman at Manhattan’s tony Essex House while on a booze binge — in what cops believe was a sex attack gone awry, sources said yesterday.
“I just lost it,” Derrick Praileau, a married father of two, allegedly told cops.
Praileau was caught on surveillance video trying to cover his tracks by returning to 44-year-old Andree “Sara” Bejjani’s condo just minutes after the attack, the sources said.
That’s when he used a maid’s electronic key card to enter the unit, which belongs to Bejjani’s sister, and grab incriminating bed linens before fleeing again, the sources said.
Cops said the attack on Bejjani — a politically connected investment adviser who once volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign — appeared to be sexually motivated.
Law-enforcement sources said it did not appear that the Lebanese-born woman had been raped, although she was found naked from the waist down, with her nightgown bunched up around her.
An autopsy showed that she died of strangulation.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said there was no indication the suspect and victim were acquainted, romantically or otherwise.
The chilling new details surrounding the slaying in the 10th-floor condo Saturday morning emerged as cops charged Praileau, 29, with second-degree murder.
He was arraigned and held without bail last night. In court papers, authorities allege that he confessed to killing Bejjani.
Praileau’s lawyer, Richard Siracusa, declined comment.
Praileau has worked at the Essex House since he was 17. He became a manager seven years ago, and quickly earned a reputation for having a “flash temper,” one employee said.
Meanwhile, Bejjani was always polite with staff and frequently sat in the lobby of the famed hotel and condo building quietly working on her laptop, the worker said.
A woman who identified herself as the victim’s sister said Bejjani never mentioned Praileau to her.
“The family is distraught,” the sister said, fighting back tears. “I’m completely in shock.”
Investigators relied on Praileau’s statement, surveillance video and key-card records to retrace the accused killer’s steps leading up to the slay.
Praileau said he was drunk when he arrived at work about 5 a.m., an hour before his shift was set to begin, sources said. Records show he used his manager’s access card to enter a different unit before opening the door to Bejjani’s condo at 6 a.m.
In his statement to cops, Praileau said he choked and cut her, explaining, “I just lost it” upon entering the room and discovering the sleeping woman.
Bejjani was found with a jump rope around her throat and a 10-inch, serrated bread knife stuck in the back of her neck.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan and Beth Stebner