The parents of a man stabbed to death amid a lover’s quarrel in the Bronx told the Daily News they had no idea their son was seeing the woman now accused of his murder.
Ramon Vasquez, 35, was arguing with his girlfriend the night of March 28, when she drew a butterfly knife and stabbed him multiple times, including once in the chest, according to prosecutors.
“We don’t know this woman,” the victim’s mother, Efigenia Barrera, 57, told The News, speaking in Spanish. “That’s what kills me inside. We’re asking ourselves, what happened?”
NYPD detectives visited the victim’s parents at their Bronx apartment the next day, saying, “We’re sorry. Your son was killed last night,” according to Vasquez’s father.
“He came to visit over the weekend. He went out and then detectives showed up,” Hodilio Vasquez, 60, said. “We have so many questions. We want to know why they killed him.”
Vasquez lived in Queens and worked at a deli in Manhattan. He leaves behind three daughters by two women, neither of whom are the suspect.
“My son was a good person who worked very hard and took care of his children,” Hodilio Vasquez said.
Dulce Dayana Hernandez Jimenez, 28, was arrested Tuesday at JFK Airport after a flight from Mexico, police said. She is charged with murder, manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a weapon in Vasquez’s death, and was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty at her arraignment Wednesday in Bronx Criminal Court.
“An argument between a couple escalated with deadly consequences,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. “The defendant is accused of stabbing her boyfriend multiple times, causing his death. We will get justice for this victim’s family.”
Hernandez Jimenez was spotted slapping Vasquez on Webster Ave. near Parkside Place shortly before the stabbing. The pair both left the scene, but returned around 9:45 p.m., when the victim’s girlfriend stabbed her lover to death, prosecutors said.
“He was stabbed several times in the heart,” the victim’s father said.
Police said the fatal confrontation happened next to a weed truck parked across from a gas station.
Vasquez was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital where he died.
“We feel terrible about his death,” his mom said. “We want justice for our son.”
The suspect fled the scene, but police said they recovered the knife she used to kill Vasquez.
Hernandez Jimenez was charged in November in an unrelated misdemeanor assault case.