By Gina Martinez
A young mother of two who was in an abusive relationship was stabbed to death in her Richmond Hill home in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Marking the first murder of 2018, at 1:09 p.m. on New Year’s Day, officers responded to a 911 call of an unconscious female inside a residence at 112th Street near 103rd Avenue, the NYPD said. When police arrived, they discovered the body of 26-year-old Stacy Loknath unconscious and unresponsive with multiple stab wounds to her torso. Police said she was pronounced dead on the scene.
According to police, hours later Loknath’s 46 year-old husband, Vinny, was discovered hanging from a tree following a suicide attempt a mile away in Forest Park. The Guyanese couple, who shared a 5-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter, were in an abusive relationship.
Police said Vinny Loknath was charged with assault in September for repeatedly striking his wife in the back of the head with a closed fist, following the assault a judge reportedly granted an order of protection barring him from seeing his wife until October 2019.
The Daily News reported the couple celebrated New Year’s Eve at a local club where they were thrown out of for arguing.
Romain Shaw, Stacy’s brother-in-law, told the Daily News Vinny was very abusive.
“She stayed with him no matter what because they had two kids together,” he said. “She was hoping for him to change, but he never did.”
The newspaper also reported that Vinny Loknath made a bizarre call to his mother after the alleged crime, asking to be cremated instead of buried.
Shivana Jorawar of Jahajee Sisters, a Queens based non-profit that supports Indo-Carribean women, called on elected officials to provide more resources to women in the community to prevent domestic abuse.
“This is the fifth time Jahajee Sisters has had to respond to the violent murder of an Indo-Caribbean woman in Queens,” she said. “How can it be that in one community, the same headline seems to run over and over again? Stacy’s death is a call to action for all of us, including our elected officials and faith leaders, who we look to in times of need.”
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation was ongoing.
Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmart
