Bronx suspect nabbed for stabbing mother-in-law to death, wounding estranged wife in front of sons

A suspect has been nabbed for stabbing his mother-in-law to death and wounding his estranged wife as their young sons watched in horror, police said.

The 47-year-old suspect was being questioned by cops and has not yet been charged. He climbed into the victim’s apartment from the fire escape through a window, shocked relatives said.

Rosmeri Tapia Batista, 57, was stabbed repeatedly in the chest and her daughter, Massiell Guerra, 40, who is married to but separated from the suspect according to relatives, was knifed numerous times in the body inside the family’s Park Ave. apartment near E. 161st St. about 7 a.m. Sunday.

Both victims were rushed to Lincoln Hospital by medics but Tapia Batista could not be saved.

“She don’t have no problem with nobody,” a female relative who asked that her name not be printed said of Tapia Batista. “He killed her because he wanted to stay with [Guerra] and she don’t want to because before they have problems.

The estranged husband, the relative said, had promised he would one day do what he is now suspected of carrying out.

Guerra, the relative said, is recovering in the hospital and on Monday opened her eyes. The sons, the relative said, are staying with other relatives, still reeling from what they witnessed though they did manage to call 911.

Guerra, according to a neighbor, was assaulted about a year ago in the stairwell of her building.

“She was bleeding…on her face,” the neighbor said. “The two little boys, they ran. They were screaming, ‘Mommy! Mommy!…I just went inside and called the cops.”

It was not clear if anyone was ever arrested for that incident.

Police sources said the estranged husband has eight prior arrests, the last one for a stolen car in 2024.

The killing marks the fifth slaying this year in the Bronx’s 44th Precinct, which saw 16 homicides in all of 2024, NYPD stats show.