HUNTINGTON STATION, NY – May 7, 2026
More than 12 years after the murder of Sarah Strobel shook Huntington Station and helped shape the community movement that became Huntington Matters, Suffolk County authorities have confirmed that the man convicted in her killing was ultimately re-convicted on appeal, deported to Mexico after his release from prison, and later found dead before he could be extradited back to New York.
The information closes one of the longest and most emotionally difficult chapters connected to the early years of Huntington Matters and the series of violent crimes that changed Huntington Station in 2013 and 2014.
For years, the public story appeared to end in November 2020, when an appellate court overturned Fernando Romualdo’s murder conviction and dismissed the indictment against him. What happened afterward was never publicly known.
Until now.
A Case Huntington Matters Never Stopped Following
Sarah Strobel was 23 years old when her body was discovered on October 3, 2013 on a wooded trail roughly 300 feet from the entrance to Froehlich Farm Nature Preserve in Huntington.
Her murder was the first in a series of killings that deeply impacted Huntington Station and ultimately led to the formation of Huntington Matters in November 2014 after four murders in roughly a year shook the community and exposed longstanding chasms between residents, local government, and law enforcement.
Over the last 11 years, Huntington Matters continued following Sarah’s case through precinct meetings, public safety forums, court proceedings, and ongoing conversations with law enforcement officials and community members.
Several weeks ago, Huntington Matters attended a Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Law Enforcement Community Advisory Board meeting focused on cold cases. Representatives from the Suffolk County Police Department, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, prosecutors, and forensic specialists discussed how advancements in DNA technology and renewed investigative efforts have helped solve older homicide cases.
During that meeting, Huntington Matters again raised questions about Sarah Strobel’s case and the unresolved status of Fernando Romualdo following the appellate reversal.
Afterward, Huntington Matters provided additional background information gathered over years of community follow-up involving both Sarah Strobel’s case and the still-unsolved murder of Danny Carbajal.
Shortly afterward, Suffolk County Chief Assistant District Attorney Allen Bode contacted Huntington Matters Vice President Dana Richter and asked to speak with June Margolin regarding an update in Sarah’s case.
What followed filled in a chapter of the story the public never knew.
The Murder Investigation
According to court records, Sarah Strobel’s body was discovered on October 3, 2013 in brush at Froehlich Farm Nature Preserve. She was partially clothed when found.
The medical examiner determined she had been strangled. Court records later detailed multiple blunt force trauma injuries to Sarah’s head, arms, torso, and legs, along with evidence of sexual assault.
For months after Sarah’s death, very little information was publicly released.
Her friends, including Taylor Friedman, Rebecca Sandler, and Samy Press, repeatedly attended Second Precinct meetings demanding answers and asking investigators to release even basic information about how Sarah died.
At the time, police publicly disclosed very little about the investigation. Community frustration over the lack of information became one of many issues fueling growing distrust between residents and law enforcement during that period in Huntington Station.
It was not until roughly nine months after Sarah’s murder, during a monthly precinct meeting attended by Sarah’s friends, that police publicly confirmed she had been strangled.
Behind the scenes, investigators were building a DNA case.
According to appellate records, semen recovered during Sarah’s sexual assault examination eventually matched Fernando Romualdo after his DNA entered law enforcement databases following a separate conviction involving the rape of a 16-year-old girl upstate.
Prosecutors later argued there was no trace of semen recovered anywhere else on Sarah’s clothing or body other than Romualdo’s.
The DNA match quickly led Suffolk County homicide detectives to charge Romualdo with Sarah’s murder in 2016.
Then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini contacted Huntington Matters founder June Margolin shortly before Romualdo’s arraignment to say investigators had identified Sarah’s killer and transferred him into Suffolk County custody.
Conviction and Appeal
Following a two-week jury trial in which the defense called no witnesses, Romualdo was convicted on June 19, 2017 of murdering Sarah Strobel.
On September 27, 2017, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
During the trial, prosecutors argued DNA evidence and surrounding circumstances established that Romualdo sexually assaulted and murdered Sarah.
In November 2020, the Appellate Division, Second Department overturned the conviction and dismissed the indictment, ruling the evidence was legally insufficient to establish that Romualdo intentionally caused Sarah’s death.
The appellate court wrote:
“At most, the DNA evidence established, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant had sexual contact with the victim at some unspecified time and place.”
The ruling devastated many people who had followed the case for years, including Sarah’s closest friends who had continued pushing for answers long after her murder.
Taylor Friedman, Sarah’s best friend, said learning the conviction had been overturned “felt like a slap in the face.”
“How could DNA evidence not be sufficient?” Friedman said.
At the time, most members of the public believed the case had effectively collapsed. Many also believed Romualdo remained incarcerated on his separate rape conviction.
What the public did not know was that he had actually been released from custody.
Arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
According to a timeline provided to Huntington Matters by Suffolk County Chief Assistant District Attorney Allen Bode, Romualdo was released after the appellate reversal on November 12, 2020.
On November 23, 2020, he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On January 4, 2021, he was deported to Mexico.
Meanwhile, then-Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini immediately appealed the appellate reversal to New York’s highest court.
New York’s Highest Court Reinstates the Case
On November 18, 2021, the New York Court of Appeals reversed the Appellate Division decision and ruled the evidence was legally sufficient to support the conviction.
The Court of Appeals found the lower appellate court failed to properly consider reasonable inferences favorable to prosecutors.
The court wrote:
“A rational jury could conclude that defendant was present at the time of the victim’s death and killed the victim during the course of, or immediately after, sexually assaulting her.”
Under New York’s appellate process, the Court of Appeals ruling required the case to be returned to the Appellate Division for additional review before the conviction could be formally affirmed.
On April 5, 2023, the Appellate Division affirmed Romualdo’s conviction.
The court ruled:
“The evidence in this case was legally sufficient to establish the defendant’s guilt of murder in the second degree beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The court also left intact Romualdo’s sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Extradition Effort Reveals Romualdo Had Died
After Huntington Matters raised questions during the recent cold case presentation about the unresolved status of the case, prosecutors revisited the matter.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Allen Bode provided Huntington Matters with the following statement:
“On behalf of District Attorney Tierney, the District Attorney’s Office appreciates Huntington Matters’ focus on this case. After your recent inquiry, the District Attorney’s Office began to explore the possibility of working with immigration authorities to extradite Romualdo from Mexico, where he was deported prior to reinstatement of the conviction by the Court of Appeals. Upon inquiring, we learned that he had died in Mexico on April 4, 2023. The trial attorney was able to speak to Ms. Strobel’s mother and we were happy to provide her with some measure of closure, knowing that Romualdo had died, but that the conviction had been reinstated by the Court of Appeals prior to his death.”
According to the timeline provided to Huntington Matters by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Romualdo’s reported date of death was April 4, 2023.
One day later, on April 5, 2023, New York courts formally affirmed his murder conviction.
On April 14, 2023, a bench warrant was ordered by the trial court.
Sarah’s Friends Never Stopped Showing Up
Long before Huntington Matters formally existed, Sarah’s friends were standing in crowded precinct meetings demanding answers about her death when almost no public information was being released.
They continued showing up for years.
Sarah’s friends publicly described her as loving, caring, spiritual, and deeply compassionate. Rebecca Sandler spoke about growing up with Sarah through church youth groups and mission activities. Sarah’s best friend, Taylor Friedman, spoke openly over the years about trying to help Sarah through periods of substance abuse and personal struggles before her death.
Friends also pushed back strongly against what they felt was public dismissal of Sarah because of escort work and addiction during the last years of her life.
People who knew Sarah before those years remembered someone very different.
She grew up in Huntington Station and graduated from Walt Whitman High School in 2008. She worked as a teenager at Giuseppe’s Pizza and planned to become a massage therapist.
Friedman said she hopes people remember who Sarah was.
“She was kind, caring, thoughtful, and loving,” Friedman said. “Her laugh was infectious and unique. Her loss has been felt by many.”
Over the years, residents continued finding ways to remember murder victims Sarah Strobel, Danny Carbajal, and Maggie Rosales.
In 2015, Kathleen Kufs, a longtime resident and park steward for Depot Road Park in Huntington Station, worked with the Town of Huntington to have memorial trees and a plaque installed in their memory at the park.
Kufs told TBR News Media at the time that she wanted “to have a place for the families and friends of these poor young people who were murdered, a place to go for peace and reflection and for the community to remember that these young lives were lost but not forgotten, and also to shed light on the fact that two of them are still unsolved.”
Today, Taylor Friedman still visits Sarah’s tree at Depot Road Park when she is in the area. For years, it has been the only marked place honoring Sarah’s memory.
More than 12 years after Sarah Strobel’s murder helped change the course of Huntington Station and the community that later became Huntington Matters, the final legal chapter of the case has now closed.
For Sarah’s friends, her mother, and her community who never stopped asking what happened to her, the reinstated conviction and confirmation of Romualdo’s death finally bring both answers and a measure of closure that for years seemed out of reach.
“Although 12 years have passed since she was taken from us, the grief is still the same,” Friedman said. “May she finally rest in peace now.”
