Female Escort Ads Led to Westchester Hotel Rapes: Police

Silvio Illescas of Elmsford faces felony charges of attempted rape and assault connected to three attacks on out-of-town prostitutes in Westchester hotels.

The women, from California, Pennsylvania and Washington state, were here to meet a client who had answered their classified online ad on backpage.com, which markets female escorts countrywide.

The case broke after a stabbing incident at the DoubleTree Hotel.

 Lt. William Herguth said Tarrytown Police received a call around 2 a.m. on Feb. 23 from an employee at the DoubleTree saying there had been a bloody commotion in a hallway. 

Police found a 23-year-old woman with a gash on the side of her neck. She was assisted by Tarrytown Volunteer Ambulance Corps and taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where she received stitches and was released later that morning.

The woman told police that she met a man at the hotel after making contact with him online. The man allegedly came to her room around 1:30 a.m. and between then and 2 a.m., said Herguth, the "altercation occurred."

The woman was able to flee, and the man drove off before police arrived. 

Herguth said their investigation linked this man with a Greenburgh police investigation of two similar incidents: one Feb 13 and one March 3.

Greenburgh police arrested Illescas March 4.

Greenburgh police told LoHud.com that they were charging Illescas with first degree rape in connection with two of the incidents. A 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped at knifepoint at the La Quinta Hotel, and a 29-year-old was raped at the Westchester Marriott. Both were escorts advertising their services on the Backpage website. Read more on these incidents here.

Silvio R. Illescas is charged in Tarrytown with:

• attempted rape in the first degree, a C felony
• assault in the second degree, a D felony