A Long Island woman was reportedly stabbed to death in front of her two-year-old son by the child’s father, just one day after her protective order against him expired.
Brenda Guadalupe Alfaro-Alcantara, 29, was found in the basement of her Hempstead home just before 8:30 p.m. Sunday with “multiple stab wounds” and was pronounced dead at the scene, Nassau County police said.
The next day, officers arrested Jose Funes-Zabala, 43, of Roosevelt, on charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with Alfaro-Alcantara’s death.
Officers say he stabbed the mother of one, with whom he had been romantically involved for three years, 34 times in front of their son after she told him she was seeing someone else.
‘His son was there when it happened. He witnessed it,” Police Capt. Stephen Fitzpatrick told ABC7. “And he remained there, covered in his mother’s blood.”
Brenda Guadalupe Alfaro-Alcantara, 29, was found in the basement of her Hempstead home just before 8:30 p.m. Sunday with “multiple stab wounds”
The police commissioner further said that Funes-Zabala fled the scene after the brutal murder, leaving his child behind.
The two-year-old was later found covered in blood as he left his mother’s basement apartment, where he encountered other family members.
Fortunately, Fitzpatrick said, the child was not injured in the attack.
Yet Funes-Zabala is said to have injured the child in the past as part of his long history of violent behavior involving family members describe in an online fundraising campaign how Alfaro-Alcantara’s murder is a “tragedy years in the making.”
“For years we knew something was wrong with him,” Yessenia Funes wrote. “He would terrorize his little nephews. He attacked another ex, the mother of his eldest son.”
But, she said, it wasn’t until 2022 that they learned how violent Funes-Zabala could really be.
Authorities have charged her ex, Jose Funes-Zabala, 43, with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with her killing
That year, his and Alfaro-Alcantara’s then-baby was rushed to the hospital with a fractured skull, bleeding in his eyes and brain, a broken rib and a broken finger, according to the GoFundMe.
Alfaro-Alcantara was subsequently granted a protective order against him last year, which expired on Friday – just one day before the suspect returned to the home they shared to visit his child and allegedly stabbed his ex. Newsday reports.
The suspect was found at a local hospital after the murder with self-inflicted wounds and was declared physically and mentally fit for an arraignment, ABC 7 reported.
Family members remembered Alfano-Alcantara as a devoted mother to her son
Yessenia remembered Alfano-Alcantara as a devoted mother, who came to the United States in 2021 “to be with the man she thought loved her.”
“She was a devoted mother and did what she could to raise her son with the little she had,” the GoFundMe reads.
It is noted that her son “won’t remember her voice or the warmth of her hugs” but “still asks for her.”
The child is now in the care of a family friend, who is dealing with the unforeseen costs of taking in a toddler, according to the GoFundMe.
As of Tuesday evening, it had raised more than $10,000 for the child’s future.
In the meantime, officers are calling on anyone in a domestic violence situation to seek help.
“I cannot emphasize enough that if you feel that a protective order is still warranted, you should still reapply and have it increased again,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We’re always here,” he noted. ‘If you don’t want to talk to us, you can call our domestic violence hotline and try to stop this type of violence.’