Smirking suspect in brutal murder of cabbie dumped in NYC reservoir is illegal migrant – feds | 20 Dec 2025 | The man who allegedly confessed to strangling a cabbie in a fare dispute and then dumping his body in a city reservoir upstate is an illegal migrant from Guatemala, The Post has learned. Santos Paulino Vasquez-Ramirez illegally crossed the border in 2013 at Hidalgo, Texas, under President Obama, and later ignored a final removal order issued in 2016 under the first Trump administration, according to sources and U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials. The accused killer — who was photographed by The Post last week grinning in the back of a patrol car — has at least three prior arrests on his rap sheet, including two DWIs and a criminal mischief for breaking a deli window, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. Vasquez-Ramirez, 27, confessed to barbarically throttling Zhunio-Orbez, 65, in a chokehold after the hack picked him up at the Brewster MetroNorth station in Putnam County, according to the county sheriff’s office.