Body of missing Bronx woman found in Yonkers; ex-boyfriend in custody: law enforcement sources
YONKERS, New York (WABC) -- One person is in custody after a missing woman from the Bronx was found dead in Yonkers on Thursday, according to law enforcement sources.
Pamela Alcantara, 26, was reported missing to police on Sunday.
Her family had been frantically trying to locate her for days, even plastering missing posters around her neighborhood and outside her apartment building on Morris Avenue in the Bronx.
That was until the discovery on Thursday, when Alcantara's body was found near the Palmer Road exit off the northbound side of the Saw Mill River Parkway at the border of Yonkers and the Bronx.
Law enforcement sources told Eyewitness News that her body was found stuffed inside a red suitcase. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Law enforcement sources say that Alcantara's ex-boyfriend is in custody at the 46th precinct. Police were able to track him down after his license plate pinged near the location the body was found.
Alcantara's family says they are certain it was him who committed this horrible act. They say Alcantara was in the process of moving out, and that her ex-boyfriend was the last person to see her.
"She was supposed to move, and I think he found out," said Alcantara's aunt Isa Peguero. "He used to put a recorder on the car and recorder in the bedroom so he can know everything what happened, what is she doing?"
"'Mom pray for me,' she said that to her last Thursday," Alcantara's cousin Naysa Peguero said. "She said, 'mom, I just want you to pray for me,' and that was all."
Alcantara's aunt and cousin say they had already found a place for her to live. They even bought her a car so she could move out of the apartment she shared with her ex-boyfriend on Morris Avenue.
Surveillance video shows her entering the building's elevator while on the phone with her mother just after midnight Sunday. There is no video of her leaving.
She never made it to church on Sunday.
"She went to church, she went home, she spoke with her mom on a daily basis and she only spent time with church friends and went to work. That was it," Naysa Peguero said.
Alcantara's family said they visited the apartment on Monday. It wasn't messy, except they say next to their bed there were signs of an argument and a struggle.
They had been together for about three years until Alcantara recently ended it.
"I checked her Facebook, I was telling my mom, she doesn't have any pictures up," Naysa Peguero said. "The only thing she has was her profile picture up. She wasn't allowed to put any pictures up."
Police have not charged anyone yet, and have made no arrests.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death as the NYPD investigates.
Meanwhile, outside the victim's building in the Bronx, a small candlelight vigil has been set up.
Upstairs, the NYPD has the unit sealed off. They are waiting for a warrant to enter.
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