Impossible Tragedy Clouded Life of 25-Year-Old NYC Woman

What to Know

• The woman whose body parts have been found in parks in recent days has been identified as 25-year-old Lisa Velasquez[hhmc]

• Police say they've arrested 31-year-old Daquan Wheeler and 30-year-old Ciara Martinez in the case; a motive isn't clear[hhmc]

• It's the second tragedy for the family; in 2006, Velasquez's mother was murdered in front of her and her siblings[hhmc]

The 25-year-old woman who was apparently beaten to death with a hammer, allegedly by a good friend and the friend's boyfriend, then dismembered and left in black plastic bags at various New York City parks witnessed her own mother murdered when she was barely a teenager, relatives and police say.

How Lisa Marie Velasquez died capped a brief life of epic tragedy for a young woman who told family members nine days ago she had to race out of her Bronx apartment to help a friend in danger. She grabbed a bag and rushed out. Her family never saw her again.

Two people were charged in her death late Wednesday, including a woman who told reporters, "She was my friend, I loved her," as she was being led out of an NYPD station house.

Velasquez's remains were found scattered around two Bronx parks miles apart in recent days. The medical examiner released her identity Wednesday, ruling she died of skull-crushing blows to the head. Law enforcement sources tell News 4 those blows came from a hammer.

"The way she was tortured, for Christ's sake, she didn't deserve that," said her distraught aunt, Jacqueline Perez. "Who in their right minds would do something like this? She's my niece. She didn't deserve this."

Velasquez may not have deserved her fate, but she was no stranger to tragedy.

In 2006, when she was only 12 or 13 years old, Velasquez's pregnant mother was murdered in front of her and her siblings. Cops said the mother was beaten, stabbed and strangled by her on-again, off-again boyfriend, who was arrested in the killing. For Perez, the coincidence is eerie, hurtful and sickening.

"In this lifetime, I never thought we would go through this again," said Perez, who is also a survivor of the 9/11 terror attacks. "This is the second episode … the type of animal that would do something like this to a human being."

Perez's mother, Velasquez's grandmother, was too distraught to speak after seeing the young woman's picture in the news. For Perez's part, she says her pain is more real now — knowing her niece is gone — than it was when she first learned it was her body in the parks.

The two arrested late Wednesday are 31-year-old Daquan Wheeler, of the Bronx, who faces murder, manslaughter, concealment of a human corpse, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon; and 30-year-old Ciara Martinez, Velasquez's friend, who faces charges of murder, manslaughter, concealment of a human corpse, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon.

2 Charged in Woman's Body Parts Found in Bags Death: Cops

The words Martinez uttered as she was led out of an NYPD precinct Wednesday — "She was my friend, I loved her" — hit especially hard for Perez.

"No true friend would say that," she said.

Martinez was dating Wheeler, according to police. And police say Martinez was the friend Velasquez raced out to help on that fateful date Aug. 21, the last night she was seen alive. Attorney information for them wasn't clear.

A vigil is planned outside Velasquez's Melrose apartment building Thursday.

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USA Today

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