New York ? A housekeeping manager at a luxury hotel next to Central Park has been arrested in the death of a woman who was found in a room strangled with a knife sticking from her neck, police said on Sunday.

Longtime hotel employee Derrick Praileu was arrested in the hours after the body of Dubai businesswoman Andree Bejjani was found in a condo at the Jumeriah Essex House, a 44-story art deco tower featuring hundreds of posh rooms, police said.

The Manhattan hotel, which is near Broadway and upscale Fifth Avenue shops such as Tiffany & Co. and Bergdorf Goodman, said in a statement on Sunday that an employee had been arrested in Bejjani’s death.

There was no answer Sunday at a Bronx telephone number listed for Praileu, and police said they didn’t know if he had an attorney.

A maid found Bejjani, 44, face down and naked on the kitchen floor on Saturday afternoon. Bejjani’s throat had been slashed. An exercise rope was wrapped around her neck, though police said it did not appear to be a factor in her death.

The cause of death was strangulation, the medical examiner’s office said.