(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Michael McHenry, 40, of Long Beach, was indicted for Murder in the Second Degree, for allegedly fatally stabbing Juliann Bachmann, 30, of Bellport.
“A young mother of three was brutally killed, allegedly by this defendant,” said District Attorney Tierney. “This office will pursue every avenue available under the law to deliver justice to her, her family, and her three children.”
According to the investigation, in the early morning hours of May 16, 2026, the victim and her friend allegedly drove the victim’s black sedan to Long Beach to pick up McHenry, who had just moved in with the victim and her three children two months prior. Just after 6:30 a.m., Bachmann allegedly dropped her friend off at a motel in Shirley, leaving McHenry as her only passenger.
Less than an hour later, at approximately 7:15 a.m., a witness allegedly saw a male, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the black sedan, grab a female in the vehicle by the hair and repeatedly strike her in the face while she screamed that he was going to kill her. The witness called 911 to report what they witnessed.
A second witness allegedly observed the black sedan on Montauk Highway and saw a woman in the driver’s seat screaming for help. The witness then allegedly observed the sedan pull into an automotive shop in Shirley, saw a man exit the passenger side of the vehicle, and pull a female out of the driver’s seat as she was clutching the left side of her neck. The male then allegedly sped away in the sedan with the victim still inside. Video surveillance recovered by law enforcement from the automotive shop allegedly depicts the entire encounter.
At approximately 7:20 a.m., an off-duty Suffolk County police captain was driving on Victory Avenue in Yaphank when a black sedan came up behind him and was tailgating him at a high rate of speed before passing his vehicle. When the captain glanced over at the black sedan, he allegedly noticed that the headrest was soaked in blood and a person in the rear seat of the vehicle appeared to be in distress. The captain followed the vehicle into a Speedway Gas Station in Yaphank, where McHenry allegedly got out of the driver’s seat and pulled the victim, who had a visible neck wound, from the rear passenger seat. McHenry was arrested at the gas station.
The victim was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital-Suffolk where she was pronounced dead. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and ruled the cause of death to be a stab wound to her neck.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant for the black sedan, which was allegedly covered in blood stains. During the execution of the search warrant, detectives allegedly recovered an open tactical knife from the sedan.
On June 3, 2026, McHenry was arraigned on the indictment before Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski for Murder in the Second Degree, a Class A-I felony.
Justice Pilewski ordered McHenry remanded during the pendency of the case. McHenry is due back in court on July 17, 2026, and faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the top count. He is being represented by Katherine Fernandez, Esq. and David Arpino, Esq.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Eric S. Aboulafia of the Homicide Bureau, with investigative assistance from Detectives Guido Cirenza and T. Michael Palumbo of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad.