Police charge ex-boyfriend with murder after Bronx woman's body found in suitcase in Yonkers
YONKERS, New York (WABC) -- Police arrested and charged the ex-boyfriend of a woman from the Bronx whose body was found in a suitcase in Yonkers on Thursday, according to law enforcement sources.
Junior Perez Diaz, 46, was charged with murder, manslaughter and two counts of kidnapping on Friday.
It comes after the body of 26-year-old Pamela Alcantara, who was reported missing on Sunday, 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.
Police were able to track down Alcantara's 46-year-old ex-boyfriend after a license plate reader pinged his car along parkway around 9:50 a.m. on Thursday.
The NYPD searched a marshy area along the roadway where his vehicle stopped, and a drone spotted a red suitcase containing her body in a shallow marshy area. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Diaz was taken into custody soon after.
Alcantara's family says they are certain it was him who committed this horrible act.
"It was my feeling when I saw stuff on the floor, the blanket," said Alcantara's aunt Isa Peguero.
Alcantara's family says they saw signs of a struggle on Monday when they entered the apartment Alcantara shared with her now ex-boyfriend on Morris Avenue in the Bronx,
They say Alcantara recently broke off their three-year relationship and was in the process of moving out from the apartment.
"She was supposed to move, and I think he found out," Isa Peguero said. "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."
Her family reported the 26-year-old missing to police on Sunday after she didn't show up for church, which they say was highly unusual behavior for the religious woman. She was a chaplain with the Latin American Chaplain Association
"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," Alcantara's cousin Naysa Peguero said.
Surveillance video shows her getting into an elevator in her building just after midnight on Sunday, and there is no video of her leaving. It was the last known sighting of her alive.
Sources told Eyewitness News that the ex-boyfriend initially told police he last saw Alcantara leaving the apartment in her pajamas with a red suitcase, something the surveillance video doesn't show. Evidence recovered by detectives later revealed that was not accurate, and he requested a lawyer.
The NYPD is now waiting on autopsy results from the Westchester County medical examiner on Alcantara.
Despite the red flags, no one in her family suspected she was in any danger, but they say Alcantara made a request during one of her last conversations with her mom.
"The only thing she told my aunt is she said, 'Mom pray for me,' she said that to her last Thursday. She said, 'mom I just want you to pray for me.' And that was all," Naysa Peguero said.
Her family is now devastated. They say she was so close to moving on with her life.
They have set up a GoFundMe, as Alcantara's body will be buried in the Dominican Republic.
Community and faith leaders are rallying around Alcantara's family Friday evening outside her Morris Avenue building
The candlelight vigil is being led by the Latin American Chaplain Association (LACA) and former NYC Councilman Fernando Cabrera alongside Alcantara's mother.
"This is the first time the family is coming out with the community to have a moment of prayer, to have a moment of remembrance, to have a moment to value her life," Cabrera said. "Because she had a life well lived. She was a young lady, 26 years old who went to church four, five times a week."
Cabrera is the pastor of the church that will host Alcantara's wake, that hasn't been scheduled yet because her body is still at the medical examiner's office.
ALSO READ: 7 On Your Side helps 2-time cancer survivor get college tuition refund
----------
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
