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Elderly Woman Found Dead of Apparent Stab Wounds in Bed-Stuy

By  Jessica Campbell and Leslie Albrecht | September 14, 2012 8:36pm | Updated on September 15, 2012 3:29pm

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — An 85-year-old woman was found dead of apparent stab wounds at her Jefferson Avenue apartment Friday morning, police and family members said.

The woman's granddaughter identified the victim as Gloria Cadet, and police were still investigating the case as a homicide on Saturday, but had made no arrests.

A family friend found Cadet dead on the floor with a towel wrapped around her neck about 7:50 a.m. Friday, said the victim's granddaughter, Gloria Oge-Alexis, 47, who was named after the victim.

Investigators initially believed that Cadet died of natural causes, Oge-Alexis said, but when funeral home workers arrived to collect the body, they moved the towel and discovered a gash on Cadet's neck. The family then called police back to the scene.

An employee at Guarino Funeral Home on Flatlands Avenue confirmed that account.

Property records showed that Cadet's family owned the building, and relatives told NY1 that she shared the apartment with a longtime friend of the family, who she called her brother.

Cadet, who loved Spanish-language soap operas and eating sweets, had three sons, one daughter, and almost 20 grandchildren, Oge-Alexis said. She had lived at the apartment on Jefferson Avenue, between Ralph and Howard avenues, since the 1980s, family members said.

Cadet's husband died 15 years ago. She lived with one of her sons, but he wasn't home when her body was discovered, Oge-Alexis said.

Oge-Alexis said she and her grandmother spoke on the phone Thursday night to plan a baby shower for another of Cadet's granddaughters.

"She's going to be greatly missed," Oge-Alexis said. "If somebody told me I was going to be a part of this I would have said you're lying, she's going to die in her sleep because all of the women in this family live past 100."