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Pregnant Woman Stabbed to Death in Brooklyn Apartment Day Before Wedding

By Jess Wisloski | October 21, 2012 10:21am
 The home where a landlord found Vindalee Smith, 38, stabbed in her apartment on October 20, 2012.
The home where a landlord found Vindalee Smith, 38, stabbed in her apartment on October 20, 2012.
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DNAinfo/Fred Dreier

EAST FLATBUSH — A pregnant bride, who was set to be married, was found stabbed to death in her Brooklyn apartment Saturday morning, police and reports said.

Vindalee Smith, 38, was found on the floor of her blood-spattered apartment, with a large wound in her neck, the NY Daily News reported.

Her baby boy, who was two weeks from delivery, didn't survive, the paper reported.

The woman was discovered by her landlord, police said, who found her at 9:23 a.m in her East 94th Street apartment near Winthrop Ave.

Police were questioning her finance, the paper reported, but no suspects had yet been arrested, the News wrote.

At New Dimension Seventh Day Adventist Church, Smith had been planning a wedding set to take place Sunday at 10 a.m., parishioners said.

 Vindalee Smith, 38, in a Facebook photo. Smith was found stabbed to death on October 20, 2012, the day before she was due to get married.
Vindalee Smith, 38, in a Facebook photo. Smith was found stabbed to death on October 20, 2012, the day before she was due to get married.
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Facebook/Vindalee Smith

A church deacon, Andrew Connor, 54, said church was closed instead, after news of the tragedy came out the day before.  Smith was one of the first people at the church for morning service, he said, and when news broke among the congregation gathered at Saturday's service, "People were crying, breaking down, talking about it all day long," he said. During the service, in which the pastor spoke about the tragic death, "two members fainted," said Connor.

In earlier reports, Pastor Ferron Francis told reporters that Smith was Jamaican-born, and had struggled financially, and had a recent run-in with a former neighbor who had threatened to kill her after letting his dog loose, but speaking to reporters Sunday, he said he was unaware of the allegations of a feud. "I don't know about that," he said, and only called Smith a "well-loved" member of the church.

"We are all so disappointed," said Raquet Berry, a churchgoer who said Smith knew she was having a boy, but did not yet have a name picked out.

Neighbors on Smith's block said she had only lived in the apartment for a few weeks, but that she seemed nice.