Breakup slaughter
Motive in slays of NJ nanny & boss
A New Jersey nanny broke up with her boyfriend just hours before he fatally stabbed her boss, then chased her down a street in leafy Maplewood and killed her as well, authorities said Monday.
The new details emerged as court papers revealed that Joseph Porter — who is accused of knifing Karen Bermudez-Rodriguez and her employer, Manhattan comedy-club boss David Kimowitz — was later nabbed at an airport while trying to flee to Cancun, Mexico.
The brooding beau, 27, of Elizabeth, NJ, apparently snapped after receiving multiple texts from Bermudez-Rodriguez, 26, between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. Saturday insisting that they were through, according to the court documents.
He had recently been seen spying on her from outside Kimowitz’s home, where she lived with the club owner and his wife while taking care of their two young daughters, who were away for the weekend at the time, neighbors said.
In one of the predawn texts, the au pair demanded back her keys to the Kimowitz’s home.
Porter “texted back that he was upset’’ by her messages, authorities said.
Following his arrest, Porter allegedly told cops that sometime before 6 a.m., he used the keys to sneak into the family’s home in the quiet, high-end suburb, walked to the second-floor bedroom, picked up a knife and stabbed Kimowitz to death.
A female voice could be heard from inside the home screaming, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!’’ a neighbor said.
Porter then allegedly bound Bermudez-Rodriguez’s hands with tape — but she was able to escape the home and run down the road.
She got a few hundred yards before Porter caught up with her and allegedly stabbed her with a different knife.
One or both of his victims apparently put up a fight — Porter had “visible scratches on his arms and neck’’ when police collared him, the court papers say.
A neighbor who heard fighting outside and saw Porter attacking the au pair called police around 6 a.m., cops said.
Surveillance video from a nearby home caught Porter chasing the nanny, who died within the hour at a hospital.
Kimowitz, who ran The Stand near Union Square, was found dead at the scene, with the knife used to kill him next to his body.
Porter was intercepted by cops at Newark Liberty International Airport.
A law-enforcement source told The Post that Porter’s mother ad given him $800 for the plane ticket, although it’s unclear if she knew he was trying to abscond after the crime.