Forest Hills victim likely killed by internet date

From the Daily News:

Michael Pecora's nude body was found in his Forest Hills apartment late Wednesday, hours after his sister called his cell phone only to have a stranger answer, the sources said.

The man with Pecora's cell phone was a cab driver, who told the sister he was given the phone earlier in the week by a passenger who said he didn't have any money to pay the fare, sources said.

The passenger gave the cab driver the phone and a watch as payment when he was dropped off in the Bronx.

Pecora's laptop was missing and the cabbie remembered that the suspicious fare was carrying what resembled a computer. That fueled investigators' belief that the killer met Pecora on the Internet and was trying to cover his tracks, sources said.