GRIM DETAILS OF KIDNAP, CORPSE
Ex-con ‘just beat on her every day,’ say kin of bondage victim as cops probe body at 2nd site
Relatives of a woman whose ex-con boyfriend had a decomposing body found in his apartment say she suffered sever abuse at his hands.
Police are still trying to identify the corpse that was found Saturday stuffed in the trash inside an East Tremont apartment. And investigators are still working to determine if the abused woman was in the apartment while the body was there.
Despite the girlfriend’s extensive injuries, relatives of the kidnapped woman said they were relieved she wasn’t killed.
Deshawn Owens, 30, is facing assault, strangulation, unlawful imprisonment and other charges for allegedly kidnapping and attacking the 28-year-old woman, cops said.
On Friday, police got a 911 call about an assault at an E. 149th St. address. After cops arrested Owens there, they checked a second address connected to him and found the decomposing body.
He is yet to face any charges in connection with the corpse, which was so badly decomposed a cause of death has yet to be established, a police source said.
Bronx prosecutors said that between Dec. 1 and Jan. 19, both at Owens’ E. 179th St. apartment near Mapes Ave. in East Tremont and the E. 149th St. address, he tied his girlfriend up with cable wires and refused to let her leave.
The woman suffered two black eyes, several broken ribs, a punctured pancreas and internal bleeding during the assault. She also had several broken hand bones, cops said.
The body was found the next day at Owens’ apartment on E. 179th St.
After someone called 911 to report a foul odor coming from that home, responding officers got into the fifth-floor apartment through a fire escape and found the body inside a trash can wrapped in a plush fabric around 2 p.m. Saturday, cops said.
Owens was already in police custody, facing a slew of assault charges related to his girlfriend. Those included criminal obstruction of breathing and assault with intent to disfigure, cops and prosecutors confirmed.
The victim’s cousin said she had been through a horrible ordeal.
“He brutally attacked her every day, by beating her with wooden sticks, broomsticks, whatever he could,” the relative told the Daily News.
“She said he just beat on her everyday. She didn’t really get into details on what led him to do that. He was making her try to do awful things, like asking people for money when he needed it,” the cousin continued. “And regardless if she did it or not, he would still just beat her. So inside his apartment he kept her hostage. And we don’t know why.”
The relative said they were raised like sisters and that it is difficult seeing the victim in pain.
“She had to lose her pancreas. Her kidney was injured. Her face was swollen,” the cousin said. “She had cuts. She had seven ribs that were broken. Her right forearm is broken. Her right shoulder is broken.”
The victim’s uncle said he had crossed paths with the suspect. He said his niece never defined the relationship, but added that the two previously shared a place in East Orange, N.J.
He said his niece’s friends once came to him four years ago asking for his help because Owens was holding her in that New Jersey apartment.
“They asked me, could I go to the guy’s house and I told them, ‘I’m not getting involved in that,’” he said.
The uncle said Owens should be charged with attempted murder, and her grandmother agreed.
“I feel that that man should be in prison the rest of his life,” the 90-year-old woman said. “He doesn’t need to be around innocent people. That man needs to be locked up the rest of his life, the way he beat my granddaughter.”
Owens, who, according to cops, has a Superman tattoo on his chest, has a long history of robbing and abusing girlfriends, police sources said.