Edison Lopez Upper West Side superintendent stabs wife, Alexandra Witek, their 2 sons, then kills self in murder suicide as Manhattan family were set to move to Westchester, NY, after accepting new super post.
An Upper West Side, Manhattan father fatally stabbed his wife, their two young sons before killing himself in a suspected murder suicide at a historic co-op apartment where the father was the building super.
Edison Lopez, 41, stabbed his wife, Alexandra Witek, 40 and their two young sons — an infant and a toddler — before taking his own life at 328 W. 86th St., police sources told the nypost.
The 3- and 1-year-old boys’ bodies according to the NYPD were in such terrible condition when they were found Monday afternoon that investigators initially misidentified them as a boy and a girl, cops said.
‘This isn’t what you expect in this building, this gorgeous neighborhood…’
The fatalities come amid no known criminal history, along with no record of police being called to their home in the past, sources said.
News of the UWS murder suicide left locals shocked and perplexed and unable to understand how the ‘loving father’ could have been brought to commit the alleged killings at the historic co-op building.
A report via CBSNY quoted neighbors who knew the superintendent as a ‘doting family man’, saying that Lopez grew up in the building and that prior to being the super, his own father had been the super at the building.
‘Everyone’s freaking out,’ Lynne Allen, a tenant at the building told CBSNY.
Adding, ‘This isn’t what you expect in this building, this gorgeous neighborhood and this very quiet building.’
Super was scheduled to start new job in Westchester, NY
Lopez, Witek, and their sons were found in their one bedroom apartment on West 86th Street near Riverside Drive around 3 p.m. Monday, when Lopez’s father called Witek’s younger brother after being unable to contact the family since Sunday, sources told the nypost.
The brother, who is the superintendent of a nearby building, alerted authorities when the pair drilled out the lock of the apartment and saw blood inside.
First responders initially discovered the two children in the living room with several stab wounds and two knives nearby, the sources said.
Witek’s body was found in the hallway with a deep cut to her neck, they continued, while Lopez was found lying on a bed in a bedroom.
The father of two also had a stab wound to his neck and there was a knife next to him.
All found individuals were pronounced dead at the scene.
The apartment deadbolt was locked from the inside, police said.
Of note, the young family was getting ready to move to Westchester where the father had just accepted another job as a super after the family of four having outgrown their one bedroom apartment.
The family’s last day at the building was suppose to be at the end of the month.
No known motive for the UWS murder suicide was immediately known, cops said.