Catherine Elizabeth Woods

Age 21

Hispanic Suspect

Paul Vincent Cortez

Age 25

Catherine Elizabeth Woods at a Ballet Performance

The Suspect: Paul Vincent Cortez

Paul Vincent Cortez grew up in Spanish Harlem in The Bronx and graduated in 1998 from Brooklyn's prestigious Poly Prep County Day School, where he was a wrestler. After graduating from Boston University's "School of Fine Arts" in 2003, Cortez returned to New York City, where he sang in a rock band called "Stillwater" and then in another band called "Monolith." He also worked as a trainer at an Upper East Side New York Sports Club, where Catherine Woods was a member.

Cortez is "in shock," said his stepfather Drake Ducal of The Bronx, adding that the couple met when Cortez attended Boston University; Cortez majored in theater and also studied martial arts. "Of course, he feels sad," said his step-father. Some sources said cops were told the Manhattan man allegedly threw the petite, classically trained dancer against a wall once during a fight. Besides theater and martial arts, Cortez has studied several dance forms. In high school Cortez was a New England wrestling champion. He briefly considered going pro, he says, "but I had an artistic side as well, so I chose theater." Cortez's biological father, Manuel Cortez, who lives in Minnesota, believes that his son is innocent.

Police have video proof that Cortez was standing just outside Woods' Upper-East-Side building around the time the 21-year-old brunette was brutally murdered, The New York Post has learned. The surveillance video — obtained from a camera posted on a bank building down the block — shows Paul Cortez, 25, on Sunday night, outside 355 E. 86th St., where Woods was found nearly decapitated inside her bedroom, sources said. That video and evidence that Cortez made cell-phone calls to the Ohio native from right outside her apartment make him the No. 1 suspect in her slaying. "We believe that he was making the cell-phone calls from just about right outside on the street," said a source, adding that Cortez came across as a "con artist" in interviews with police.

The Post revealed yesterday that police had learned that Cortez — a personal trainer and aspiring actor/rock singer — made seven cell-phone calls in quick succession to Woods' cell-phone shortly before she was murdered. Cortez told cops he made the calls from his home, 23 blocks away. But that was a lie, according to sources, who said detectives have learned that the calls made at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday — which went unanswered by Woods — were made by him just outside her building.

Cortez, who has retained a lawyer, refused to comment yesterday and called police when reporters tried to contact him at his East 106th Street apartment. He has not returned to work at the Equinox health club near Woods' apartment since being questioned by police. Cops also suspect the 2003 Boston University theater-studies graduate because he would have known Woods' pattern for going to work. In particular, he would know that Woods tended to leave her apartment at about 7 p.m., and that David Haughn had a habit of going to get his car before returning to drive her to work.

It is known that Woods was in her apartment on the phone with a friend at 6:10 p.m., and Haughn has told the police that she was alive when he left her at 6:30 p.m. to get his car to take her to a shift at a topless club. Haughn, a would-be rapper who performs under the name "City," also said that he returned almost 20 minutes later to find Woods butchered, with blood splattered throughout the room. He immediately placed a 911 call at 6:48 p.m.

Sources said the killing would have taken about five minutes and that the murderer would have been prepared to hide any blood that splashed on him by bringing something to wear over his clothes or a change of clothes. That makes it likely that the murder was premeditated instead of the crime of passion it initially appeared to be. Cortez, according to a person who knows him, had called friends on Sunday afternoon to tell them he was performing with his band, Monolith, that night at a club called Rare in Manhattan's Meat Packing District. But a manager at Rare yesterday said that the club was closed Sunday night, as it usually is.

Cortez only spoke to police investigators for a few hours on Monday before clamming up and getting a lawyer, leaving his interrogation in tears, a source said. In contrast, Haughn spoke to police for more than a day and also allowed investigators to search his car and belongings "without an ounce of trepidation," the source said. Cortez has told police he had an on-again/off-again relationship with Woods, whom he met while training her, last year at a health club near her home. But he also said he was not dating her at the time of her murder.

Curt DeGroat, a friend of Cortez, yesterday said, "There's a lot of people who are concerned about him right now." "Paul is an extraordinary person. He's a beautiful yoga teacher. He's very loving, very sensitive," said DeGroat, 40, who last saw Cortez at an upstate meditation retreat in October. "There's no question in my mind that he didn't do this to this woman . . . I'm sure the evidence will prove that. "He really loved her very deeply," said DeGroat.

DeGroat also said Cortez "was always very afraid for" Woods because he believed that the people she was hanging out with were very bad news. "He knew that she was in a dangerous situation." A note on Woods' kitchen calendar shows she had an appointment for yoga the day she was killed — but not at the gym where Cortez is employed.