The NYPD has named a suspect in the fatal slashing of a woman’s throat inside her family’s Brooklyn home last month — and is asking the public’s help tracking him down.
Cops released surveillance photos of 43-year-old suspect Misael Cruz, whose last know address is about a half mile away from the victim’s home in Bay Ridge, as they press their hunt for the killer.
Cruz allegedly slit 36-year-old Maria Santos Flores’ throat inside her home on June 20. Investigators believe he may have encountered Flores in the neighborhood, had eyes for her, and stalked her, a police source said.
Maria Santos Flores. (GoFundMe)
“Upon arriving home, María Santos Flores was attacked by an unknown assailant who violently took her life, leaving behind two children who depended entirely on her,” an online fundraiser created by the family said in Spanish.
Flores’ 18-year-old son found her dead with her throat sliced open inside their two-story home on 85th St. near Fourth Ave. about 9:10 a.m.
Police released an image of a person they identified as Misael Cruz. (NYPD)
“Her sister came to visit. When he opened the door he saw her on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and they called the ambulance,” Santos’s husband previously told the Daily News. Her body was discovered when the victim’s son came downstairs to let the aunt in.
Flores worked as a bartender at a tavern in neighboring Sunset Park, according to her husband.
Along with her son and husband, Flores leaves behind a 14-year-old daughter.