An 88-year-old Bronx woman was found beaten to death in her own home this morning. Police say victim Evelyn Shapiro was found by her daughter around 9:55 a.m. inside her fifth-floor apartment at 2455 Williamsbridge Road; she was unconscious and surrounded by spilled, freshly-bought groceries. She suffered severe trauma to the head, and was pronounced dead on the scene. “That is monstrous to kill an old lady like that,” Maria Lopez Cayon—whose 82-year-old mother lives a floor above Shapiro—told the News.
Police believe Shapiro may have been the victim of a violent robbery; when they first saw the scene, they thought it was a shooting because of the amount of blood on the ground. “We’ll find where she bought the groceries and retrace her steps,” a police source told the News. “It looks like someone followed her in.” Neighbors speculated that she may have been targeted because she wore gold jewelry when she went out: “She wore an insane amunt of jewelry,” said Lisa Velez. “I asked her why...She said she was afraid to leave it in her apartment.”
No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. released a statement praising Shapiro as "a well-known pillar of her community:"
I call on anyone with information about this murder to come forward so that we can put this savage behind bars. Anyone who could so brutally take the life of an 88-year-old woman is a monster, has no place in our society and the sooner they are off of our streets the better.
