A 57-year-old Trinidadian woman was stabbed 83 times while at her Brooklyn, New York apartment on Saturday.
She was identified as Liza Millet, a resident of the YWCA, at 30 Third Avenue in the Boerum Hill neighborhood.
A woman believed to be the assailant, a 48-year-old resident at the building, identified as Dorothy Curry was subsequently arrested and charged.
According to reports, shortly before 7 am police responded to a dispute involving a knife attack. Officers later found Millet lying on the floor of her room with several stab wounds to her back and torso.
New York police found Curry barricaded inside her unit just down the hall from Millet’s apartment.
She was taken into custody after officers from the Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit forced open the door.
Millet was taken to New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Curry was taken to Kings County Hospital Centre for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged later on Saturday with murder.
Investigators recovered a six-inch kitchen knife at the scene.
According to a New York Times report, Millet and Curry had both lived for several years in the building, which provides housing for 285 women.
And according to Rolanda Telesford, a spokeswoman for the YWCA in Brooklyn, neither woman had a history of violence or complaints filed against them.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Millet's close friend, Margaret Charles said Millet came to Trinidad on May 20, to celebrate her 57th birthday which was the following day, May 21.
Charles said Millet, who was originally from Belmont, stayed at her place at Crystal Hill, St Paul Street, East Dry River, Port-of-Spain.
“I heard about her death when her daughter called me crying. I was shocked because someone like Liza surely did not deserve to die like that. She was stabbed 83 times. I mean if she died in an accident I would have understand that but like this,” Charles said.
Charles said Millet migrated to the US 14 years ago. “She wanted to better her life and worked very hard at it. She did not have a lot of friends because she was always working,” she added.
Asked during her visit if Millet mentioned to her that her life was ever threatened, Charles replied: “No. If she was threatened she would have told me for sure because we were so very close, like family.”
Charles said her daughter was trying to arrange the funds to bring Millet's body to Trinidad for the funeral.
However, she said, if the funds were not acquired in time, the cremation would then be held in Brooklyn and her ashes sent to Trinidad for burial at the family's plot.