Beau cuffed in strangle slay

ASHLEY McDUFFIE, a Mount Vernon mother of two, was last seen alive Aug. 19 walking into a store with her boyfriend. It looked for all the world like a routine outing.

Hours later, she was reported missing, and on Saturday, her beau, Jason Myers, 32, was charged with her murder.

Police officials say Myers confessed to strangling McDuffie, 27, then dumping her body in a stretch of Bronx woods.

“We’re going to make sure everything’s done for Ashley,” her father Ricky McDuffie told the Daily News Saturday.

“This is when family gets together real tight. We have a strong Christian faith, so I think we’ll be able to make it through this.”

Ricky McDuffie, 52, added he had no wish to see the site where Myers’ confession had led police. His daughter’s body was discovered Friday inside Seton Falls Park near E. 233rd St., south of the Mount Vernon border. It’s unclear how long McDuffie’s body was in the park.

Her frantic family called police after Ashley (photo) failed to pick up her two kids, ages 3 and 6, from a visit with their grandmother in Stamford, Conn.

“She was recovered a week later so it may be up to seven days that she was in the park,” Mount Vernon Police Captain Roy Hastings told WCBS 880.

“This went from a missing persons investigation to a tragedy and her boyfriend now being charged with her murder.”

Responding to media reports that his daughter was pregnant when she was killed, Ricky McDuffie said if true she had not told her family.Speaking while Myers was in custody but before charges were brought against him, the heartbroken father tried to restrain his anger toward the suspect.

“I think he felt the strength of the family and knew he was a guilty man and wasn’t going to get away with it,” Ricky McDuffie said.