A Long Island man has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly strangling his pregnant girlfriend and dumping her body near an expressway in Queens.
An MTA bus driver discovered the body of Vanessa Pierre, 29, early Friday morning along Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside. She was wearing pajamas and gray sweatpants were wrapped around her neck, PEOPLE reports. Her family said she was six-months pregnant and her unborn baby girl could not be saved.
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Investigators say 29-year-old Goey Charles strangled Pierre and the heinous crime was caught on surveillance video (see Twitter clip above).
A statement from the Queens District Attorney’s Office alleges that the footage shows Charles pulling over on the expressway just before 3 a.m. and attacking Pierre, whom he’d been dating for more than a year.
“Charles exited the driver’s seat of a 2019 white Dodge Challenger, which is registered in the name of the victim, Vanessa Pierre,” the statement reads. “He moved to the backseat where Ms. Pierre could be seen moving on the video footage. And then, soon afterwards, all movement stopped and the victim appeared to lay across the backseat motionless.”
Over an hour later, “the defendant is observed exiting the vehicle and then allegedly dragging the pregnant woman out of the car and dropping her body onto the sidewalk.”
Charles is accused of leaving his girlfriend’s “dying body on the side of the roadway,” and fleeing the scene in his car.
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By the time first responders arrived, Pierre was dead, according to the report.
“This is a heartbreaking case,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “A pregnant woman was allegedly killed by this defendant, the father of her unborn child. Her family is devastated. The defendant is in custody and will answer for his alleged actions.”
If convicted on the charge of second-degree murder, Charles faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
Pierre’s family has launched a GoFundMe to cover burial expenses.
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