Police in Florida busted the man who allegedly killed his girlfriend and left her body stuffed in a parked car in South Ozone Park in November 2020, according to law enforcement sources.
Kareem Flake was arrested Friday in Kissimmee on a domestic battery complaint against a woman and is awaiting an extradition hearing at a correctional facility in Osceola for the murder of Destini Smothers, a 26-year-old mother of two from Upstate Troy, NY.
Smothers went missing in Woodside in November 2020 following an argument with Flake, the father of her two children, at the Bowlero bowling alley located at 69-10 34th Ave. Four months later, on the morning of March 10, a Department of Sanitation tow truck operator arrived at 149-57 Lefferts Blvd. near 150th Avenue to remove an abandoned black Toyota Camry with no license plates, according to the NYPD. The operator opened the trunk and discovered the victim’s decomposing remains, police said.
Officers from the 106th Precinct in Jamaica cordoned off the residential block as the investigation began. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz arrived at the crime scene by midday.
Smothers died from a skull fracture and brain injury caused by a blunt impact to her head, according to the city medical examiner’s office, which ruled her death a homicide. It is not clear when Flake will be extradited back to Queens.
