The frantic 911 calls made by horrified neighbors as they desperately tried to summon help for a New Jersey au pair who was bleeding to death in the street have been released by authorities.
Residents of Woodland Road, Maplewood, scrambled to call police and paramedics on Saturday morning after hearing the haunting screams of 20-year-old Karen Bermudez-Rodriguez who was bound, chased and then stabbed to death by her jilted ex-boyfriend, Joseph Porter, police say.
According to investigators, hours earlier Bermudez-Rodriguez had text her Porter, 27, telling him their relationship was over and asked him to return a set of keys that he’d borrowed from her – but instead he returned with a knife.
‘Please come immediately — someone is dying!’ a woman can be heard saying in one emergency call. ‘She’s on the street, someone attacked her. I think she’s bleeding to death. I think she may already be dead.’
Au pair, Karen Bermudez-Rodriguez (left), 26, and her boss David Kimowitz, 40, were killed Saturday just hours after she broke up with her boyfriend, Joseph Porter (right), 27, who has been charged with their murders
Porter (above), 27, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was booked on two counts of murder and weapons possession in the deaths of David Kimowitz, 40, and Porter’s girlfriend, Karen Bermudez-Rodriguez, 26
‘Hurry! Ambulance immediately!’ the panic-stricken woman adds.
Another man made a call to paramedics as he was knelt down beside a semi-conscious Bermudez-Rodriguez in what would later prove to be her final moments of life.
‘You’re going to be fine. The ambulance is coming,’ he can be heard telling her, under the instructions of the operator. ‘They’re going to take care of you. Please hang on.
He then tells the dispatcher the 20-year-old has suffered a deep gash to her neck and described it as, ‘very bad’.
‘I’m trying to talk to her but she’s almost out of it,’ he says.
New details were released on Monday by police in support of murder charges against Porter. In an affidavit, authorities revealed that Bermudez-Rodriguez and Porter had text each other about five hours before the murders occurred.
She told him that she no longer wanted to be in a relationship, which reportedly ‘upset’ the suspect.
Bermudez-Rodriguez, who was a live-in nanny for The Stand Comedy Club owner, David Kimowitz, 40, also told Porter that she wanted her keys back.
After his arrest, Porter reportedly admitted to using her key to ‘open the door’ to Kimowitz’s home.
‘Porter then went to the second-floor bedroom where he proceeded to pick up a knife and stab David Kimowitz’ to death, the document reads.
Police said Bermudez-Rodriguez also told Porter that she wanted her keys to the house back. Bermudez-Rodriguez was a live-in nanny for Kimowitz’s family. After his arrest, Porter reportedly admitted to using her key to ‘open the door’ to Kimowitz’s home (pictured)
‘Porter then went to the second-floor bedroom where he proceeded to pick up a knife and stab David Kimowitz (pictured with his wife),’ the document reads
Porter then bound Bermudez-Rodriguez’s hands with tape, but she was somehow able to free herself and run out of the home.
She only managed to make it a few hundred yards down the street before Porter caught up with her. Neighbors on an adjacent street heard the girl screaming ‘Oh my God, oh my God’, before they ran outside to investigate.
‘I don’t know … a man with a woman … I don’t know what he do with the lady … she’s on the street laying there,’ an unnamed woman says in another 911 call.
On Sunday, neighbors claimed to have seen Porter’s parked in the neighborhood for hours before the slayings.
Authorities also said Porter was arrested as he tried to flee from the US to Cancun, Mexico, with $800 that he’d borrowed from his mother.
A jogger discovered Bermudez-Rodriguez dying of stab wounds on a street outside his residence.
Prosecutors in Essex County say police officers were called to the home shortly after 6am Saturday on a report of a woman being assaulted.
Upon arrival they found the injured Bermudez-Rodriguez lying in the street.
She was rushed to Beth Israel Medical Center where she was pronounced dead shortly before 7.30am, prosecutors said.
Bermudez-Rodriguez (left) arrived in the United States more than a year ago from her native Colombia. It’s unclear how long she had been dating Porter (right)
As officers were canvassing the area, Kimowitz was found in a home nearby after police followed a trail of blood to the residence.
Bermudez-Rodriguez was first stabbed in the home. Kimowitz was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 40-year-old lived at the home with his wife, Laura, and their two children. His family wasn’t at the home, which the couple purchased in 2017, at the time of the killings.
Kimowitz is one of the owners of The Stand comedy club in New York City that relocated to Union Square last year.
The club is located on East 16th Street in Manhattan and has hosted big names like Dave Chappelle and Tracy Morgan.
Bermudez-Rodriguez came to the US to learn English, her friend said. Bermudez-Rodriguez began babysitting for Kimowitz shortly after her arrival
Kimowitz (right) is one of the owners of The Stand comedy club in New York City that relocated to Union Square last year. The club is located on East 16th Street in Manhattan and has hosted big names like Dave Chappelle and Tracy Morgan (center)
‘I heard a woman screaming, “Oh my god!” over and over and over,” said neighbor, Kathy Cantwell, 63.
‘It was at 6am. My window was open. I didn’t see anything. Someone was screaming from the top of their lungs,’ Cantwell added.
Bermudez-Rodriguez arrived in the United States more than a year ago from her native Colombia, a friend told NJ Advance Media.
She came to the US to learn English, her friend said. Bermudez-Rodriguez began babysitting for Kimowitz shortly after her arrival.
Autopsies are planned in Newark to determine the cause of death.
Prosecutors said their homicide task force and local police are investigating and asked anyone with information to call investigators.
Neighbors said they noticed a Toyota Corolla parked near the house (pictured) in recent weeks
Prosecutors said their homicide task force and local police are investigating and asked anyone with information to call investigators. Porter lived in this apartment complex in Maplewood, New Jersey
Neighbors said they noticed a Toyota Corolla parked near the house in recent weeks.
One of the neighbors, Raffy de la Torre, 18, says he didn’t recognize the driver.
‘I’ve seen his car for the last couple of weeks,’ he told the New York Daily News.
‘He was just sitting there. My friend saw him every day. I never saw her [Bermudez-Rodriguez] get into the car.’
Porter is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility on two charges of first-degree murder. His arraignment is scheduled in Newark for 9.00am Thursday.
Prosecutors said they have not recovered the murder weapon.