Police said Thursday that a 38-year-old mother of two was discovered dead in her bed this week, with injuries to her face and neck and blood splattered around her Bronx apartment.
Authorities said Lissette Gomez’s body was discovered inside her apartment on Cauldwell Avenue near Westchester Avenue in the Woodstock neighbourhood around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday.
The NYPD stated that Gomez’s death was “suspicious,” though the exact circumstances were unknown.
Police said a 33-year-old man was being questioned, but the nature of his relationship with Gomez or whether he played any role in her death was unknown.
Cops arrived at Gomez’s apartment after someone called 911 and discovered her dead in bed, with serious wounds to her face and neck, according to cops. EMS pronounced her deceased.
The city Medical Examiner’s Office will issue an official determination.
On Thursday, a makeshift memorial with pictures of Gomez, candles, and messages from her loved ones and neighbours was set up in the building’s entrance.
“RIP sweet angel we love you,” read a note left by her 44-year-old sister Carmen Torres.
“I’m feeling destroyed,” Torres, also of The Bronx, told The Post outside the building. ” Right now my heart is just heavy, but I’m trying to be strong because I’m the only one out here for her. My parents are in Florida because they don’t have the funds to travel.”
Torres described her sister, a mom of two young kids, as “beautiful” and “kind.”
“She had a big heart,” the grieving woman said. “She would give you anything she had. She was a wonderful person.”
The last time the two sisters saw each other, Gomez “had bruises on her face, legs, arms, everywhere,” Torres said, adding that her sister had been in a relationship with a “terrible” boyfriend she had warned her about.
According to neighbors, Gomez had been trying to rebuild her life after years of battling drug addiction, but had recently fallen into an abusive relationship.
“She was fixing her life up, she was doing everything right,” said Nini Rodriguez, 59, who noted she had known Gomez for about 10 years.
“She was just in a really bad situation, a domestic violence relationship,” Rodriguez added. “He was very abusive. Everybody used to see him beating her up. She was always with marked up face, black and blue, and she would tell people that he was abusive.”
