Michelle Kim

‘Daddy, Don't!': Neighbors Awake to Enraged Husband Allegedly Stabbing, Killing Wife in Jersey City

A Jersey City man is facing murder and other charges after authorities said they found his 38-year-old wife stabbed to death in their apartment building hallway early Wednesday. 

Milagros De Morel was pronounced dead at the scene after she was found unconscious with stab wounds in the Duncan Avenue building, the Hudson County prosecutor's office said. The medical examiner will determine a cause of death. 

Neighbors said they heard the man next door dragging his wife out of the apartment and down the hallway, their 15-year-old son begging him to stop the whole time.

"He was screaming, 'Daddy, don't!,'" said Alena Riddick, who'd been startled awake by a thumping sound and a "piercing" scream. 

"And after that I was just shaken because I know it was traumatizing, and I don't know what to do," she said.

Riddick called 911. Police arrested the victim's husband, 59-year-old Jose Morel, at the scene. Law enforcement sources said he was enraged because he thought she was cheating. 

Neighbors said they had no idea there was a problem in the home. The couple had been living there together the last few years and neighbors had not seen any violent fighting. 

But Joaneileen Coughlin, who works with victims of domestic violence though Women Rising, said in all likelihood there were problems that went unnoticed.

"Sometimes it's verbal, isolating from family and friends, emotional abuse," she said. "And then it gets to the physical abuse." 

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