December 27, 2025 It was 3:00 a.m. on New Year’s Eve—a time for celebration for most, but for one 25-year-old woman, it became a fight for survival in the shadows of East New York.
New details have emerged following the indictment of Rasi Vendryes, 48, a Queens man now facing a mountain of felony charges. Prosecutors say Vendryes used his grey Sprinter-style van as a rolling chamber of horrors, luring the victim to a desolate stretch known locally as the “Penn Track” near Malta Street and Linden Boulevard.
The Great Escape
The details of the December 31, 2023, encounter are harrowing. According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, the victim was subjected to a violent ordeal involving strangulation and sexual assault. Throughout the attack, Vendryes allegedly threatened to take her life.
In a desperate bid for freedom, the woman managed to roll down a window and scream for help. Her captor’s response was cold: he allegedly shoved her out of the moving vehicle and sped off into the night, taking her phone, jacket, and purse with him.
The Digital Breadcrumbs
While Vendryes may have thought he disappeared into the New York night, he left behind a digital trail. Investigators eventually traced the victim’s stolen phone to a park in Queens—just steps away from the defendant’s home.
Despite the trauma, the victim’s path to justice truly began in August 2024. During an outreach operation by the NYPD Human Trafficking Team, she found the courage to come forward. A positive identification in a photo lineup sealed the case, leading to Vendryes’ arrest.
Justice in the Courtroom
Vendryes was arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Adam Perlmutter on a slew of heavy-hitting charges, including:
