Police arrest 29-year-old man wanted in Queens triple murder mystery
SOUTH JAMAICA, Queens (WABC) -- Police arrested a 29-year-old man wanted in connection to a triple murder in Queens.
Travis Blake was apprehended in Maine Thursday after three people were brutally murdered inside a home in Queens on Friday, June 25.
A sister of one of the victims spoke out about the ordeal Thursday as balloons dangled outside of the empty home now turned into a shrine days after the murder.
"We don't know when they were murdered," Natasha said. "They were in the house days before they were discovered."
Natasha is the older sister of 36-year-old Dervon Brightly.
Brightly was a security guard in Times Square.
His mother was 55-year-old Karlene Barnett and her goddaughter, 22-year-old Vashawnna Malcolm, was a nursing student visiting for the summer. She arrived 10 days ago from Jamaica.
"She came here on a plane. She actually set up a plane ride from Jamaica and now she has to go back home in a box to her mom," Natasha said.
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Natasha says Barnett's younger son went to the house at 116-11 on 155th Street on Friday, to check on them after two days of not hearing from them.
He found Malcom first, on the second floor. Police say she was bound and lying on a bed with trauma to her body.
Barnett's younger son then called police. When they arrived, they found Barnett stabbed to death and Brightly with severe head trauma in the basement.
Neighbors are still in shock.
"I'm very sorry. I didn't expect this," one neighbor said.
Police had been searching Blake.
Detectives say he was living at the home and believed he may be connected.
Natasha says her brother's mother Karlene Barnett, had an intimate relationship with the suspect and when she cut it off, he allegedly snapped, killing Barnett, her goddaughter and Natasha's brother.
"He actually preyed on an innocent family who he knew could not defend themselves and we just want answers," Natasha said.
Natasha had a message for the killer just hours before his capture.
"I would tell him to turn himself in because right now this is just a 30 second news clip to the public, but to my family, it's a lifetime of hurt and anger," she said.
The family said detectives told them that the suspect had ties in Florida and Atlanta. Police tracked him down in Maine.
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