Latest update December 19th, 2024 3:22 AM
Newly-wed Guyanese woman slain by husband in NY
“I felt like it was her time to die” – suspect tells cops
A 27-year-old Guyanese woman, Yollanda Gonsalves, was stabbed to death on Tuesday by her husband of two weeks, in Queens, New York.
Gonsalves, who left Guyana a little over three months ago, was a resident of 
Seaforth Street, Campbellville, Georgetown. She was a cosmetologist by profession, and described by a close friend as a loving individual.
The alleged killer, Miguel Pichardo, confessed after he was apprehended by police officers when he was returning to the scene of the crime.
The New York Daily News reported that the man, who was charged with killing his wife, “confessed to the felony and detailed to cops how he disposed of the body”.
According to Assistant District Attorney, Kristen Papadopoulos, in statements to the press, Pichardo’s confession was bizarre. “I felt like it was her time to die,” the suspect told police, according to court papers. “I slapped the f——g s—t out of her.”
The US citizen chillingly told detectives that he looked into his girlfriend’s soul as he killed her, and then wrapped her body in a rug. He then demonstrated the gruesome act with a bagel and a paper plate at the stationhouse, cops said.
Pichardo, who shuffled slowly into the courtroom wearing a blood-stained Tyvek suit, stood silently as Papadopoulos read the charges against him.
A few members of his family in the courtroom broke into tears as they saw him enter.
Marc Laykind, his lawyer, told the judge he was having trouble communicating with Pichardo, saying he would not acknowledge anything he said.
Pichardo was ordered held without bail. The court-appointed attorney waived Pichardo’s right to a speedy trial, meaning the DA will have until at least July 1st to get a grand jury to indict him.
According to a close friend of the now dead woman in Guyana, “Yollanda was a very loving, caring and pleasant woman that was easy to get along with and would always put herself before others”.
Gonsalves’ Facebook page revealed that she attended Golden Grove Secondary School and had also resided in the British Virgin Islands.
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