58-year-old Virgil Solis is charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
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It happened Monday morning in the Tremont section of the Bronx, where 53-year-old old Valerie Solis was fatally stabbed inside her 7th floor apartment.
"She had a beautiful smile," said the victim's friend Darnella Price. "Wonderful smile. She was the kind of person you could fall in love with. That's how she was. She was a great person."
Sources tell Eyewitness News her husband called his parole officer after the brutal attack and texted his wife's daughter, then took off.
Virgil Solis is a registered sex offender who spent 10 years behind bars for aggravated sexual assault of an 18-year-old girl back in 1998. He was released in 2008 and was currently on parole.
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"All we ask is that justice would be served. That he turn himself in or cops apprehend him," said the victim's godson, Pastor Courtney Scullark.
Friends of the victim remember her as a cheerful neighbor who would sit outside her apartment building on the 2000 block of Southern Boulevard in the Bronx and greet fellow tenants.
She had two children and many friends who adored her. "She was a great person at heart," said Scullark.
"I didn't know her husband at all. Never saw him," said Price.
Virgil Solis was arrested in Manhattan, police say.
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