A man who suspected of fatally bludgeoning his 51-year-old girlfriend and her 14-year-old son is dead from an apparent suicide.
The bodies of Marisol Ortiz and her son, Alanche Delorbe, were found on Sunday afternoon by Ortiz's daughter in Ortiz's apartment in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Neighbors said they heard the 22-year-old-daughter, who had been checking on them because her mother did not show up for work, crying in anguish upon making the discovery.
"Torn cash was allegedly found scattered over the 51-year-old’s body. Hand weights that police believe were used to kill the duo were found near their bodies, though an autopsy has not yet been performed," the NY Post reports. A relative said that Ortiz's and Alanche's bodies would need to be cremated, because they were so mutilated.
Another neighbor had told NBC New York that they had heard screaming from Ortiz's apartment around 1 or 2 a.m. on Sunday, but thought the noise was from a party.
Police say Ortiz's boyfriend, Hector Cruz, was killed by a Metro-North train at the Hartsdale station in Westchester County around 9:45 a.m. on Sunday. Authorities believe he killed himself.
Cruz's alleged motive remains unclear.
The Daily News, which noted that Cruz served a seven-year prison sentence for first-degree assault (he was released in 2016), reports that Ortiz's brother believes "Cruz competed with Ortiz’s children for attention... He wanted Marisol to pay more attention to him than the kids." The super at Ortiz's building also described Cruz as "a devil! He’s a bad character. A really bad guy."
Alanche's 15th birthday would have been Monday. "He didn't even get to learn how to drive. It breaks my heart," a neighbor said.
