Anguished family wants answers in death of FIT student Carmen Saldana
Updated Tuesday, July 14th 2009, 1:46 AM
DelMundo/News Family members try to comfort Susana Saldana (c.), mother of dead FIT student Carmen Saldana, Monday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/07/13/2009-07-13_anguished_family_wants_answers_in_death_of_fit_student_carmen_saldana_.html#ixzz0LDg6jkJ6&D
DiDonna for News Carmen Saldana during happier times - her 2004 wedding.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/07/13/2009-07-13_anguished_family_wants_answers_in_death_of_fit_student_carmen_saldana_.html#ixzz0LDgY0dH1&D
A gorgeous Fashion Institute of Technology student was found naked and asphyxiated in bed in Queens - and cops were hunting Monday night for clues in the brutal murder.
Carmen Saldana's grieving mother couldn't contain her anguish as authorities carried her daughter's lifeless body out of the family's Astoria apartment.
"Oh, Carmen! Carmen! Carmen!" grieving mom Susana Saldana wailed. "Oh, my God!" she screamed in Spanish as relatives tried to comfort her.
The mom came home from work cleaning houses in the Hamptons on Sunday night and found the 23-year-old brunette's body in bed covered up to her neck by a comforter, police sources said. The young woman was naked except for a sandal and a sweater wrapped around her arm. She had bruises on her knees and on the right side of her body. It was not immediately clear how she had been killed.
Sobbing outside the family's home, dad Gilberto Saldana pleaded for cops to catch the killer of the youngest of his three children. "I want justice," he said, adding that his daughter "had no problems with anyone."
Carmen Saldana was married at 18 following a whirlwind romance, but the marriage ended in divorce, her family said.
Gilberto Saldana said the family does not suspect her former husband, Cesar Quesada, 23, now a police officer in Las Vegas.
Quesada could not be reached for comment.
Childhood pal Gina Apestegui, 23, who served as maid of honor at Carmen Saldana's December 2004 wedding, said the murder left her "at a loss for words."She was among friends who set up a makeshift memorial on Carmen Saldana's stoop last night. Apestegui said one of her happiest memories of her friend was going to Mets games together. "She was the biggest fan" and drove from Las Vegas to California to see the Amazin's play, Apestegui said.
Carmen Saldana had written on her MySpace page that she had enrolled at FIT to "make something" out of herself.
Investigators were combing through her computer and cell phone records in hopes of finding out whether she knew her killer, police sources said.
Cops also dusted for fingerprints near the front door of the family's home. The door's lock had been busted, police sources said, raising the possibility of a break-in.
Gilberto Saldana, who told cops his daughter didn't have a boyfriend, said he thought she was the victim of a robbery gone bad. But he didn't see anything missing when cops briefly allowed him to look inside the home.
The portrait of wrenching grief at the Saldanas' home was starkly different from the image of the joyful young bride who smiled out from the pages of an engagement announcement in the Daily News.
Carmen Saldana gushed to The News about how Quesada swept her off her feet: "He took me out for dinner and said how much he cared about me and wanted me to be a permanent part of his life - and popped the question.
"I was so shocked. I felt like fainting right there."
Now those happy memories are gone forever.
"We never thought that something like this could ever happen to someone like her, at her age," said Carmen Saldana's cousin Ali Rodriguez, 32, of the Bronx.
With Erica Pearson
Investigan asesinato de mexicana
- Gloria Medina |
- 2009-07-14
- | El Diario NY
Nueva York — Escenas desgarradoras se vivieron ayer en las horas de la mañana cuando la policía sacaba el cuerpo de la joven mexicana, que presuntamente fue estrangulada y violada, del edificio donde vivía con su mamá en Queens.
“Carmen, hija”, gritaba desconsoladamente Susana Saldaña, madre de Carmen Saldaña-Mundo, de 23 años, que estudiaba en el Fashion Institute of Technology, mientras era consolada por una prima de la víctima.
El padre, Gilberto Saldaña y otros familiares también se estaban inconsolables frente al edificio cuando vieron la bolsa negra con el cuerpo de la víctima en el momento de que lo sacaron del edificío.
El cuerpo sin vida de la joven fue hallado por su mamá alrededor de las 10:00 pm. del domingo cuando regresó de trabajar de una limpieza en una casa de los Hamptons, según Saldaña.
Los hechos ocurrieron dentro del apartamento en el segundo piso del edificio localizado en la esquina de la calle 47 y la 30 avenida en Astoria, Queens, según el informe de la policía.
“Estaba acostada en la cama, envuelta en una sabana”, dijo el padre visiblemente afectado al recordar la imagen que vio cuando acudió al llamado de su esposa.
La última vez que la mujer mexicana vio a su hija con vida fue el viernes en la mañana, cuando salió para su trabajo y cuando regresó el domingo en la noche encontró señales de que alguien había entrado por la fuerza al apartamento y después vio a la joven estudiante muerta.
Ellen Borakove, vocera de la oficina del forense, confirmó que la muerte de la joven había sido un “homicidio por asfixia”, pero no dio detalles acerca de la forma en que el cuerpo fue encontrado.
“Justicia”, pidió el padre de la víctima. “Que lo maten de una vez, esa gente no merece vivir”, añadió el afligido padre al salir del apartamento cargando algunos maletines.
gloria.medina@eldiariony.com
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