Name: Irene Silverman
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Case Classification: Involuntary
Missing Since: July 5, 1998
Location Last Seen: New York City, New York County, New York
Date of Birth: Circa 1916
Age: 82 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 115 lbs.
Hair Color: Red/auburn
Eye Color: Brown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Wears glasses; fracture left hand
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: Nightgown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Manhattan philanthropist, Irene Silverman, was last seen on July 5, 1998, in the vicinity of East 65th Street between 5th and Madison Avenues in Manhattan. Bloodstains were found outside her home.
Silverman was a former dancer and the widow of a Manhattan real-estate and mortgage broker, who had remodeled her six-story Upper East Side mansion into posh apartments after her mother died in 1985.
In May 2000 Sante Kimes and her son Kenneth Kimes were found guilty of murdering Irene Silverman. The Kimeses, who had schemed to bilk Silverman out of her $7.7 million townhouse, were both given multiple life sentences.
Kenneth Kimes was a tenant at Silveman's family mansion at the time.
Silverman had become suspicious with the new tenant and when she dined on the night of July 4 with two of her closest friends, she told her companions she planned to evict Kimes. The next morning, Silverman buzzed the only employee staying in the house that weekend, Aracelis Rivera, to do some laundry and take her boxer Georgie to the roof for some exercise. Rivera picked up the laundry and the dog. But when she checked later in the day, Silverman didn't answer the phone and her door was locked. That afternoon, Rivera talked to another employee, who alerted police.
When The Kimeses were arrested on July 5, 1998 police found Irene Silverman's keys, which she always carried on her person, as well as her old passports, her Social Security card and blank checks from her bank account. A black vinyl suitcase the pair had stashed in a hotel contained several forged documents, including a bogus deed for Silverman's townhouse.
Kenneth Kimes told police that he dumped Silverman's body in a construction site somewhere in New Jersey, 35 to 40 minutes from the Holland Tunnel.
Agency Name: New York City Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Missing Persons Squad
Agency Phone Number: 1-212-694-7781
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: KNMP05362
NamUs Case Number: 10096
NamUs
Houston Chronicle - Jul. 25, 1998
CBS News
Added: 04-23-2007; Last Updated: 05/04/2024 - By: kc
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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