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Renee Spencer, age 68, of Yonkers, was found around 1:20 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 11, inside her apartment on Nepperhan Avenue.
Yonkers Police responded to the apartment after receiving a call from the building management who had found Spencer after her family asked for a welfare check, said Det. Lt. Dean Politopoulos, of the Yonkers Police.
Upon arrival first responders located Spencer down on the floor in a lifeless state in the presence of blood splatter; upon examination, she was found with multiple stab wounds, Politopoulos said.
No other people were present in the apartment. Police cordoned off the scene and initiated a criminal investigation, he added.
An investigation found that the victim and a male suspect entered the building together on the night of Tuesday, Aug. 9, with the suspect leaving the building alone approximately 90 minutes later, Politopoulos said.
Investigators developed information identifying the suspect as Deshawn Nunez, age 21, of Yonkers, he added.
During the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 10, a day after the murder but before its discovery, officers spotted Nunez loitering in the area of Riverdale Avenue, Politopoulos said.
Nunez was known to the officers and they had information that he had multiple active warrants and that he was violating a stay-away order of protection at the location. Officers placed him into custody without incident, police said.
Investigators believe that Nunez and the victim were known to each other, and he allegedly stabbed her multiple times in the torso with a kitchen knife that was recovered at the scene, Politopoulos added.
Nunez made spontaneous statements implicating himself in the murder and detectives believe that his motivation may have been retaliation for perceived past incidents involving relatives of the victim; the case remains under active investigation.
Nunez was booked on one count of murder; at the time of his arrest, he had one active arrest warrant and three active bench warrants, police said.
He is expected to be remanded to the Westchester County Jail following his arraignment on the murder charge.
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