Police: Woman, 85, Found Fatally Stabbed Inside Brooklyn Apartment
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police said an 85-year-old Brooklyn woman, who was found in her living room Friday morning, was stabbed multiple times in the neck and torso.
The body of Gloria Cadet was discovered by the victim's cousin, who was coming by to have coffee with her as he does each morning. The tragedy of the woman's death was compounded by police saying the death appeared to be accidental before it turned into a murder investigation.
Detectives spent much of the day at the Bedford-Stuyvesant residence on Jefferson Avenue. Family members said that when police arrived, they told them the woman had likely fallen and then suggested they call the funeral home.
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"They think she bumped her head, then they cleared it and said 'natural causes,' signed off on death certificates, told us to call funeral parlor and everything and we did so," Cadet's granddaughter, Christina Oge, told 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon.
However, when mortician Walter Corey arrived to take the body to his funeral home, he was stunned at what he saw under the towel Cadet had wrapped around her neck to keep warm at night.
"There was about a three inch cut right below her chin and about three or four puncture wounds," Corey told CBS 2's Sean Hennessey.
The NYPD said officers on the scene spoke with the Medical Examiner's office, which had spoken to Cadet's doctor. Given the woman's age, health, and there being no forced entry, police said the ME ruled the death wasn't a homicide.
"I think the investigators that arrived prior to me should have done more investigating. This way, they would have discovered before I did," Corey said.
Granddaughter Gloria Oge-Alexis recounted her conversation with the mortician to 1010 WINS' Rincon.
"They said 'You know what happened?' I said 'They told us she probably fell and hit her head' and then [the mortician] goes 'No, something is not right here,'" Oge-Alexis said.
Police sources were putting the blame squarely on the Medical Examiner's office, which didn't immediately comment. But the family still wondered why the authorities at the scene didn't notice that their loved one was a victim of violence.
Detectives were called back to the apartment, which was being treated as a crime scene Friday night. An autopsy, which could come Saturday, will help make the determination of the cause of death.
The victim's family said she lived by herself and didn't have any known enemies. The home was not ransacked and there were no signs of forced entry, police said.
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