But minutes later, the police said on Monday, the two started arguing and Mr. Zarate flew into a homicidal rage, beating the year-old girl with a pole, stabbing her in the neck and stuffing a bandanna down her throat so she could not scream. Then, the police said, while his parents were sleeping upstairs, Mr. Zarate sawed off the girl's legs and stuffed her into a trunk.
The girl's family panicked Saturday morning when they awoke and could not find her. Friends fanned out across the forested Morris County neighborhood with few sidewalks and big lots and even knocked on Mr. Zarate's front door. He leaned in the doorframe, a neighbor said, and shrugged. Zarate said, according to Febe Sieb, a neighbor who said she talked to him that day.
Early the next morning, a few miles away, a police officer happened to be driving past as three teenagers standing on a bridge were about to heave something heavy into the Passaic River. The officer stopped. He drew his gun. He discovered that the three teenagers -- Mr.
Zarate, his year-old brother, and a year-old friend of the brother -- were trying to dump a trunk that held a dismembered body. It was the girl next door, Jennifer Parks, an only child who had been described as shy and sweet, and a shameless fan of Harry Potter.
Arrest papers said Mr. Zarate admitted killing her after they got into the argument in his basement. According to the papers, he recounted slugging her in the face, beating her with a pole from a sliding glass door, wrapping a bandanna around his hand and reaching down her throat. He cut off her legs at the knees with a knife, the police said. Afterward, Mr. Zarate scrubbed his basement rug with bleach and asked his brother and the friend to help him get rid of the body.
