The Associated Press
LAUDERHILL, Fla. (AP) -- Tips called into the “America’s Most Wanted” television show helped authorities capture a 21-year-old man whom officials say killed the son of a 1970s disco singer in South Florida nearly two years ago.
Police arrested Peter Cunningham in New York on Monday, two days after the Fox show highlighted the slaying of 23-year-old Jason Tavares, who was fatally shot in a botched drug deal.
Tavares was the son of Antone ``Chubby” Tavares, a singer in the group Tavares, which recorded the “Saturday Night Fever” hit “More than a Woman.”
After Tavares’ slaying in Lauderhill, just west of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County sheriff’s investigators tracked Cunningham to Sarasota, where they lost his trail.
Fifteen tips came in following Saturday’s show, said Kim Newport, a spokeswoman for the program.
One woman said she recognized Cunningham and pointed detectives toward the Bronx rooming house where he was found, said Antone Tavares, who had appealed to the crime-fighting show for help in resolving the case.
``If I had to do it with my last breath, that guy was going to get caught,” said Tavares, of New Bedford, Mass. ``It’s not going to bring back my baby, who I love more than life itself, but it brings some closure.”
Cunningham was charged with first-degree murder and will be extradited to Florida this week, said Liz Calzadilla, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.