‘Devil’ on the loose
No room in psych ward for son before ma’s death
Relatives and a neighbor of a man sought for questioning in the death of his own mother — who was found in her Bronx apartment with a bag over her head — said he has a troubled history, and snapped after he lost custody of his newborn baby.
The victim, Teresita Rosario, 59, and her family were trying to get help for her son, who just days ago called himself “the devil,” according to relatives.
Rosario’s daughter tried last week to get him admitted into a psychiatric ward, they said, but was told help wouldn’t be available until Monday.
Rosario’s body was found Saturday night in her Belmont apartment after cops performed a wellness check for her worried daughter. Cops found her dead beside the basement stairs near a blood spatter, with a plastic bag over her head. Investigators said there were signs of a struggle.
“He wasn’t getting any help,” said Minerva Mojica, 60, a neighbor, who has lived near Rosario for nearly four years. “When he told his niece he was the devil, the niece told her mother and the mother called the psych ward saying he needed help or whatever. The psych ward said they couldn’t do anything until Monday, which is today. Today. And look what happened? They should have taken him in.”
It was not immediately clear which facility the family called.
“His niece said that he said, ‘I’m the devil, get away from me, I’m the devil,’ ” Minerva said. “It’s crazy, it’s crazy. The whole block is devastated. She was only a sweetheart; I mean there’s nothing bad to say about that lady.”
Cops showed up to check on Rosario (photo) at her Clinton Ave. apartment shortly after 8 p.m.. after getting a 911 call from her 30-year-old daughter, a nurse who lives upstate.
After firefighters removed a door, cops found Rosario dead on the floor at the bottom of the basement stairs. The city medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine how she died.
Cops were trying to track down Rosario’s 29-year-old son for questioning. Rosario lived with her son, and police had been called in the past for domestic violence incidents between them, sources said.
Rosario’s son just became a dad in September, relatives said. The couple lived with his mother for a while, they said. But the new mother left with the infant and moved to Florida after several domestic incidents, they said.
“That was like a month ago,” Minerva said. “It was recent. I think that’s when he went crazy.”
Candida Corniel, 42, a neighbor and friend of the victim, said she last saw Rosario Friday morning. Later in the day, Rosario’s daughter called, asking Corniel to check on Rosario.
Corniel went over to the apartment with a friend and the spare key Corniel has to Rosario’s place. But she said she had a bad feeling and decided not to use it. Instead of going in, she said she called the daughter back and told her to contact the police.
“‘I’m not going in,’ ” Corniel told the friend. “‘Instead let’s call her daughter back, because if something happened, I will drop dead on this floor.’ My friend said, ‘Wait wait,’ and I said no, and we called back the daughter and told her to call the police, which she did, and that’s when they found the body.”
Corniel said the ordeal over her son’s condition had Rosario at her wit’s end.
“She said he had he devil inside,” Corniel said. “He had a crisis, and the devil was inside him and she prayed for the devil to come out.”