Possible murder-suicide eyed in shock stabbing of Brooklyn woman and 14-year-old daughter (EXCLUSIVE)
The shocking stabbing deaths of a Brooklyn woman and her 14-year-old daughter are being probed as a possible murder-suicide, police sources said Tuesday.
It’s one of a handful of theories cops are pursuing as they await autopsy results for Azalea Rivas and her 14-year-old daughter.
Mother and daughter were found dead along with the family dog inside their the apartment on New York Ave. near Avenue D in East Flatbush Monday, according to cops.
Rivas’ boyfriend broke down the door to the apartment around 2:30 p.m. and discovered the bodies after not hearing from her in several days.
The daughter had been stabbed and slashed repeatedly and suffered other wounds, a police source said. Her death has been declared a homicide.
Rivas suffered deep cuts to her neck and chest that could possibly have been self-inflicted, the source said. Cops are waiting for the city Medical Examiner to confirm or disprove their suspicions, the source said.
The family dog was found dead in the apartment next to the teen — a plastic bag wrapped around the pup’s head, although it was not immediately clear how the animal died.
The boyfriend told police he hadn’t been able to get in touch with the woman or her daughter so he visited the apartment. After knocking repeatedly with no answer he broke down the door.
He found Rivas lying face up in the living room and her 14-year-old daughter face down in a bedroom, according to police sources.
Cops said that there were no reports of domestic violence at the apartment but couldn’t immediately confirm accounts from neighbors that cops had repeatedly been called to the apartment, most recently on Friday.
That day, their downstairs neighbor was startled awake around 7:20 a.m. to the sounds of screams and a dog whimpering.
“We got woken up by loud banging and screaming,” neighbor Steve Schor told the Daily News Monday. “We called 911 and the police came. When they went upstairs, no one answered. All they heard was loud music.”
Schor, 38, said that after multiple knocks the officers left.
“After the banging, we heard the dog crying and whimpering and then it just stopped,” Schor said. “Obviously, we heard people being murdered.”
Investigators were reviewing 911 calls to the home but cops can do very little if no one answers the door or if they don’t hear anything inside, a high-ranking NYPD official said.
“Unless you hear something at the time or the caller can articulate enough for you to take action, you can’t enter an apartment without a warrant,” the official said.
