Female Italian immigrant killed by African immigrant friend

The African immigrant who killed an Italian college student inside her Harlem apartment was arrested after detectives called him from the slain woman’s cell phone, police sources have said. Soon after Rita Morelli was murdered inside her Harlem apartment, a person from a Bronx payphone called 911 to report her dead body, the sources said. “There is a dead body over there,” the tipster said. “There is a dead body.” The caller had a heavy accent and was almost inaudible. Later, Morelli’s live-in boyfriend found the 36-year-old dead in their East 120th St. home. The killer tried to strangle her, then stabbed her twice in the chest and slashed her throat, police said. Investigators began calling some numbers on Morelli’s cell phone when they dialed her friend Bakary Camara, 41, and recognized his voice, police sources said. Police soon tracked Camara, a Gambian immigrant, to his Fordham, Bronx, home — which was just three blocks from the payphone that the 911 caller used after Morelli’s murder, the sources said. Police went to his fourth-floor Valentine Avenue home to arrest him, sources said. When the police knocked at the door, Camara locked himself inside, sources said. The police busted down the door to find a suicidal Camara stabbing himself in the stomach on his couch, sources said. Camara was later charged with second-degree murder. Morelli, who was earning a degree at Hunter College, was also a popular waitress at Caffe Buon Gusto on the upper East Side. She moved to the city from her hometown of Spoltore, Italy, to pursue her love of arts and music.