By Bill Parry
The NYPD made a gruesome discovery when officers responded to a frantic 911 call from an attached brick home in East Elmhurst just past midnight Wednesday morning.
Estrella Castaneda, 56, and her daughter Lina, 25, were found beaten to death in their respective bedrooms in their home on 87th Street near Astoria Boulevard with a bloody hammer lying nearby, police said.
Carlos Albert Amarillo, 44, of East Elmhurst has been charged in the murder of the two women, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
“The defendant is accused of the violent beating death of his girlfriend and her daughter, who in fact herself was the mother of a young child,” he said. “Thankfully, that child, a 7-year-old girl, was not harmed in the attacks.”
Amarillo was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and one count of criminal possession of a weapon, the DA said. If convicted, Amarillo faces up to life in prison without parole.
According to the charges, the DA said officers upon entering a second-floor front bedroom found Estrella Castaneda face up on the bed with a pillow over her face and the rubber grip of a hammer beside her. When the police entered the rear bedroom, they found Lina Castaneda face down on the floor with injuries to her head, the DA said. A bloody hammer was lying next to the body. The victim’s daughter was unharmed on the bed in her mother’s room.
The district attorney said Amarillo called 911 at about 12:10 a.m. and allegedly told the operator that “two females are dead, they were assassinated, hurry, they are dead. I killed them because they are witches, I want the police to kill me. I killed them with a hammer.”
When police arrived at the scene, Amarillo was seen walking from the doorway to the street, carrying a Bible, Brown said. Amarillo allegedly repeated,“I killed them, I killed them,” according to the DA’s account.
Brown also contended that the defendant in statements he made to police said he believed both of the victims were witches and were performing voodoo and casting spells on him.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail and bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718.260.4538.
