After assisting police in tracking down and arresting his mother’s alleged killer, the son of a woman found dead in her Brooklyn apartment has managed to also recover her stolen goldendoodle, which he found with the murder suspect’s aunt after staking out her apartment, according to cops and the slain woman’s son.
Maria Ines Granda’s lifeless body was discovered with head trauma inside her apartment on 79th St. in Bay Ridge around 9:30 a.m. Monday, cops said Her husband, 47-year-old Mauricio Granda, was arrested in Sunset Park later that day, police sources said.
He was charged late Tuesday with murder in his wife’s death, cops said.
According to the victim’s son, 29-year-old Fortino Vazquez, his mother’s dog, named Canelo, was missing from her apartment when her body was found. A building worker told the Daily News Monday that the victim’s husband was spotted on surveillance cameras leaving their apartment with the pooch two days earlier and that the pair never returned.
Distraught over his mother’s death and desperate to find the missing goldendoodle, Vazquez decided on Tuesday to stake out the suspect’s old apartment on 53rd St. where he previously lived with his aunt in Sunset Park.
It was shortly after 11 p.m. when Vazquez spotted the woman exit the building with the missing dog and confronted her, cops said.
“I waited about 40 minutes. I wasn’t going to give up,” said Vazquez. “We were just sitting there and all of a sudden we see the dog come out.”
After the son approached the 3-year-old goldendoodle, the murder victim’s dog jumped on him in greeting, and that’s when he took his chance.
“I didn’t even think about it,” he said. “I unhooked the leash, and she just attacked me.”
As Vazquez claimed the dog, the woman swung the untethered leash and struck him in the back of the head, Vazquez and cops said. Both she and Vazquez then called police, but it was the woman who ended up being arrested.
“I ended up having a (laceration) in the back of my head and I ended up bleeding,” Vazquez said.
Yolanda Granda Trivino, 73, was charged with assault, menacing, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon for the attack on Vazquez, cops said. She was released without bail after pleading not guilty Wednesday.
Vazquez said his older brother purchased the dog for his mother.
“My family was really worried about the dog,” he said. “It gave some closure. Just knowing he’s safe and where he really belongs is great.”
Vazquez’s recovery of the dog comes just one day after her helped police capture his mother’s alleged killer.
After learning of his mother’s death on Monday, the victim’s son drove to his stepfather’s former apartment in Sunset Park on a hunch, he said.
“Something told me to head there,” Vasquez said. “When I approached 52nd Street, that’s when I I recognize my mom’s car and, as I get closer, I see that he’s inside,” Vasquez said.
The victim’s son called the detectives before slowly pulling up beside his mother’s blue electric car, which was parked on the street. As he was on the phone with detectives, a patrol unit pulled up and told him to move, Vasquez said
“I was blocking traffic, and cars were honking. But I wanted to stay put,” Vasquez said. “Once the detectives got there, they told me to move more forward, like to block him so he couldn’t escape. And that’s when I came side-by-side with him, and I just blocked him.”
Vasquez said his stepfather didn’t appear happy to see him.
“His windows were rolled up. I didn’t say anything to him. I just looked at him. We made eye contact,” Vasquez said. “He’s always very friendly with me. But this time it just, I don’t know. It’s just something very different.”
The murder victim’s son said some of the cops who were on scene for his stepfather’s arrest responded to the confrontation over the dog the following day.
“There were several officers there that recognized me from when the whole incident went down,” Vazquez said. “They were able to help me.”
Vazquez said that though safe, even the goldendoodle was affected by his mother’s death.
“The dog is not eating,” he said. “You can tell he’s very sad.”