Two Rooftop Murders, Decades Apart

The murder of a young woman on Sunday who wanted to see a rap star up close and personal revived memories — in some of its grisly details and in its brush with celebrity — of a sensational New York murder less than a mile away but more than a quarter-century ago.

On Sunday night, the authorities said, a bartender’s assistant lured a young woman to the rooftop of a karaoke club in Times Square, attacked her, and killed her.

The 1980 case involved a promising violinist at the Metropolitan Opera, who was taken to the roof of the Metropolitan Opera House, attacked and thrown down an air shaft — nude, bound and gagged — to her death.

In this week’s case, the cultural backdrop was hip-hop. In the 1980 case, the performance was by the Berlin Ballet. The tabloids called it the “Murder at the Met.”

This week’s victim was Ingrid Rivera, a 24-year-old airline employee who attended a birthday party for the rapper Lil’ Kim at Spotlight Live, a club on Broadway at 49th Street, on Sunday night. The 1980 victim was Helen Hagnes, who was 31.

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