Pieces of Me

"I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest," Agatha Christie said when asked about her books. The case of Lisa Marie Velasquez is one that would have made a great book if Christie had written it. Sadly, what happened to Lisa was real life and reminiscent of an earlier event in her childhood. All she wanted to do was help her friend, and in return, she was murdered and cut up. Who says friendship is worthless nowadays?

When Lisa was 12, she watched as her mother's on again/off again boyfriend brutally murdered her. Marilyn Ginel (Lisa's mother) had been nine months pregnant with another kid at the time of her death, and the boyfriend was not happy about that. Maybe he had never heard of condoms? In any case, the boyfriend was sent to prison, and Lisa lived a life of coping with the after-effects of losing a parent to murder. Jacqueline Perez, Lisa's aunt, said this about her beloved niece; “She became more helpful after that, because of what happened. It affected her, but she never thought that would happen to her.” Being helpful would lead to her death, so maybe she should have reconsidered that.

Ciara Martinez worked with Lisa at the local Modell's. They became fast friends, especially when Ciara confided to Lisa that she was being abused by her boyfriend, Daquan Wheeler. As many people do in these situations, Lisa told her co-worker that if she ever needed help, to give her a call. Ciara took her up on the offer one night when things had gotten out of hand. Jacqueline Perez remembers the night well. “She had to leave because her friend was in danger." So, Lisa went over and tried to get her friend out of a dangerous situation.

When she arrived, Ciara was by herself, crying. Daquan had taken their daughter out of the house, without permission. Lisa sprung into action and called in the kidnapping to the police. Leaving the house after making that call would have been advisable, but you live and learn. Well, theoretically. Daquan came back and found what Lisa had done, and he was pissed. Here's a question that needs to be answered—why did no one try to get this man anger management classes? He determined that since Lisa called the cops, she needed to die. After finding an object, he beat her over the head until she was dead.

Now, this was not his first time trying to kill someone. Previously, he had been convicted of attempting to kill someone and breaking into their house. Don't know which one happened first, that is anyone's guess. In any case, he was out on parole and didn't want to deal with the cops again.

Ciara was in a state of shock at watching her boyfriend kill her friend. When Daquan told her to help him cut up the body, she allegedly tried to resist, but he threatened to kill her and their daughter. After watching a man kill another person, you don't question whether he will do it again. So she started cutting up her friend. Then her boyfriend decided that he didn't want a dead body in their house, because of property values or ghosts or some such. Planting the body parts around The Bronx seemed to be the right way to go about things, and that's what they did.

A poor park employee found two trash bags that seemed more substantial than usual. Police were called, and then detectives took over the case. The body had no identifiable markings, and running a dental record did no good in identifying the body. The cuts on the body were not clean, which added to the mystery. They were at a loss. This is the part of SVU where they would go to commercial.

Another bag of body parts was found by some people who were enjoying their time in another park. Fears of a serial killer spread faster than Usain Bolt runs. Soon, though, the detectives figured out that the newest found body parts were actually part of the body that they were having time reconstructing. Finally, they had a tentative picture to put out to the public and see if anyone knew who the victim was.

A few tips poured into CrimeStoppers, and one of the said that it looked like Lisa Marie Velasquez. In a short time, they found the 911 records from the night of her murder and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Daquan Wheeler was arrested for the murder and Ciara Martinez faces charges of helping after the fact. Will there be one more twist in this story? Probably not, Agatha Christie didn't write it.