A 53-year-old woman who had survived cancer and just celebrated her birthday was found dead with blunt trauma to her head and stab wounds to her back Thursday at a public housing complex in the Bronx — and now police say her fiance is the prime suspect.
Police responding to calls of an attack inside an apartment at the Mitchel Houses on East 135th Street in Mott Haven found Wanda Martin unconscious and unresponsive around 8:30 p.m., the NYPD said. EMS declared her dead at the scene.
"That's my son's godmother. That's my friend," Geneen Pinckney said. "She's like a sister to me. And for her to be gone is a tragedy."
Pinckney said Martin was so generous that she cared for six foster children after her biological kids became adults.
"You take on six kids that's not yours — that just goes to show what kind of heart she had," Pinckney said.
Investigators say the prime suspect in the killing of Martin is her 50-year-old fiance, Darryl Gibbs. Friends and neighbors found it hard to believe that he's a suspect.
"That's why this is a surprise," one friend, Charles, said. "They wasn't really having, as far as I know, problems or what have you."
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Pinckney said she just hopes police can locate Gibbs.
"Now that he is the official suspect, I just want him to be found," she said.
No arrests have been made in the case. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
