What to Know
- A New York City couple has been indicted in connection with the murder and dismemberment of a Bronx woman, prosecutors announced Tuesday
- Daquan Wheeler, 31, and Ciara Martinez, 30, are facing numerous charges in connection to Lisa Marie Velasquez's murder in August
- Velasquez, 25, was allegedly hit in the head with a hammer and dismembered, her body parts scattered among two Bronx parks, prosecutors say
A New York City couple has been indicted in connection with the murder and dismemberment of a Bronx woman, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Daquan Wheeler, 31, was indicted on murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the first degree, criminal facilitation in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, while Ciara Martinez, 30, was indicted on concealment of a human corpse, tampering with physical evidence and conspiracy in the fourth and fifth degree, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark said, describing the crime as “a series of horrifying acts.”
Wheeler is due back in court Jan. 8, 2019, while Martinez is due back on Dec. 20, 2018.
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Attorney information for Wheeler or Martinez was not immediately available.
Prosecutors say that on Aug. 22, 2018, Wheeler struck Lisa Marie Velasquez, 25, in the head with a hammer, killing her, when she visited the apartment Wheeler shared with Martinez on Longfellow Avenue in the Bronx.
Allegedly, Velasquez went to the apartment to aid Martinez, who was fighting with Wheeler. Wheeler apparently got upset when he found out that Velasquez had called police.
Prosecutors say that the couple moved Velasquez’s body from the bedroom to the bathroom and cleaned the bedroom to conceal the murder. The couple then allegedly placed their and Velasquez’s clothes in garbage bags and took them to a park nearby, where they dumped them in the water.
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According to the investigation, prosecutors say, the couple subsequently went to a hardware store and bought garbage bags and a machete.
They allegedly then cut up Velasquez’s body and put the dismembered parts in the bags, placing some of the bags in the water off of Barretto Point Park and some in Crotona Park.
Prosecutors say the couple then went back to their apartment to further clean the scene and paint the interior to conceal the crime.
Two days later, on Aug. 24, a city Parks Department worker found the bags in Crotona Park, while visitors discovered the bags containing the human remains in Barretto Point Park on Aug. 28, prosecutors say, adding that the remains were matched to Velasquez who was reported missing.
In an eerie twist of fate, in 2006, when she was only 12 or 13 years old, Velasquez's pregnant mother was murdered in front of her and her siblings. Cops said the mother was beaten, stabbed and strangled by her on-again, off-again boyfriend, who was arrested in the killing.
