A woman who was eight months pregnant was found stabbed to death Saturday in her apartment, the day before her wedding, police said.
Vindalee Smith, 38, was found in the basement of her apartment in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn with a gaping wound in her neck. It wasn't clear how long she'd been dead before the body was discovered. Her baby boy did not survive.
There was no sign of forced entry, and no weapon was recovered, police said. Investigators are looking for a possible suspect. They interviewed her friends and family and were looking to speak to her bridegroom, though he has not been named as a suspect.
"I can't even begin to imagine who would want to do that," her friend, Sybil Samuel, told local newspapers. "It would be the devil, to kill a woman with a child in her stomach. They killed two people."
Smith had four other children who were staying with relatives ahead of the wedding, friends said. A baby shower had been planned for Saturday evening, followed by a small wedding Sunday.
She worked for a home health care agency and was a devout Seventh-Day Adventist and attended New Dimension Church, where she was supposed to get married. Congregation members were concerned when she didn't show up for morning service.
"She was always on time— always the first person at church," Tyler Harrigan told the Daily News of New York. "When the news came to the church, the whole church broke down. We started to bawl. All the children were crying."
