Bodies of Queens triple homicide victims were rotting for days when discovered, investigators believe

[The Bobster]

Bodies of Queens triple homicide victims were rotting for days when discovered, investigators believe

Investigators believe the three people found butchered in a Jamaica, Queens home Friday had been rotting there for days based on decomposition levels.

nypost.com

Bodies of Queens triple homicide victims were rotting for days when discovered, investigators believe​

By
Tina Moore,

Joe Marino and

Melissa Klein


June 25, 2022 7:26pm
Updated









Police at scene of triple homicide in Queens



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Investigators believe the three people found butchered in a Queens home Friday had been rotting there for days, based on the level of decomposition of their bodies, police sources told The Post.
The victims, found Friday, included a 22-year-old woman identified as Varshanna Malcom, was visiting from Jamaica, sources said.
She was discovered lying on her back in an upstairs bedroom at the 155th Street home in South Jamaica. She was tied up with electrical cord and duct tape around her wrists and had been stabbed twice in the chest and once in the neck, sources said.
According to sources, investigators believe the three bodies were already rotting for days before they were found.Daniel William McKnight
A man who said he lived at the house and was the victim’s cousin had called 911 when he returned home and found her, sources said.
Police then found two other bodies after they broke down the home’s locked basement door.

One victim, 55-year-old Karlene Barnett, had multiple stab wounds to her back and blunt trauma to her head, sources said. A man found in the basement, also with stab wounds and blunt force trauma to his head, is believed to be her 36-year-old son, Dervon Brightly.

Barnett owned the home, public records show.

The home was owned by 55-year-old victim Karlene Barnett.Daniel William McKnight
A family member told police that Barnett’s boyfriend had been visiting the house recently, possibly from out of state.

Police took a person of interest into custody Friday but released him. No arrests have been made.

 

[The Bobster]

Queens triple murder victims whose bodies rotted for days remembered as ‘good’ family

Karlene Barnett, 55, and her 36-year-old son Dervon Brightly were found stabbed to death in their house in South Jamaica Friday, along with 22-year-old Varshanna Malcolm, who friends said was Barne…

nypost.com

Queens triple murder victims whose bodies rotted for days remembered as ‘good’ family​

By
Reuven Fenton and

David Meyer


June 26, 2022 4:43pm
Updated









Police at scene of triple homicide in Queens





Three murder victims whose bodies were left to rot for days in their Queens home were remembered Sunday as a “good” and “quiet” family who worked hard and took care of one another.
Karlene Barnett, 55, and her 36-year-old son Dervon Brightly were found stabbed to death in their house in South Jamaica Friday, along with 22-year-old Varshanna Malcolm, who friends said was Barnett’s niece.
“They were a good family,” horrified former neighbor Shaun Buchanan, 40, told The Post on Sunday.
NYPD at the scene of where three people were found dead in a South Jamaica, Queens house last week.DANIEL WILLIAM MCKNIGHT
“It was extremely shocking for us to hear they were murdered gruesomely like that, viciously,” Buchanan said. “That’s what’s driving us crazy. That these people died like that.”
Nate Richardson, 35, was also mourning the loss of the mom and son, saying he and Brightly, who everyone called Derv, were close friends for years.

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“We went through everything together. It was him and two other friends, and we called ourselves the Four Horsemen. We did everything together,” Richardson told The Post.
Karlene Barnett, 55, was found dead in the hours along with her 36-year-old son Dervon Brightly and 22-year-old niece Varshanna Malcolm.
“He was there for everything, the baby showers, the births, first car. I went to school in Virginia and he came out there,” he said of Brightly.
Buchanan said Barnett, who worked in healthcare “was always at work. She was hardworking.” She was described as “stern, but caring,” by Richardson.
“If there was rules, you abided by the rules. But she always made sure his skinny self was fed,” he said of the slain mom and her son.
Richardson’s wife Danielle, 33, said Brightly was fond of doing impressions and funny voices, adding that the couple had last spoken to him on Tuesday.
“He was professing his love for one of our childhood friends,” Danielle Richardson said. “He was asking us to put in a good word for him. He said, ‘Danielle, you know I’m a good person. She’ll know.’ ”
“All of us are trying to fathom how this animal took out three people,” she added.
Buchanan, the former neighbor, said he was surprised to hear Brightly still lived at home but that, “I can understand the reasoning behind it, because that’s the type of family they were — that close.”
No arrests had been announced in the brutal slayings as of Sunday.
NYPD investigators believe the trio’s bodies were decomposing in the home on 155th Street in South Jamaica for days.
Neighbors and friends said Dervon Brightly and Barnett were part of a “close” family.Facebook
Neighbors said they had noticed the stench and tried but failed to pinpoint the source.
“We smelled this bad smell, didn’t know where it was coming from… My husband called 311,” neighbor Mahmouda Zaman told The Post. “They came and inspected, said, ‘There is no violation. We don’t know where the smell is coming from. And they left.”
“I thought maybe it was my plants, so I washed all my plants but the smell was still coming. Then, two days later the street was blocked off by police.”
The bodies of the three victims were left rotting in the house for days before being found.DANIEL WILLIAM MCKNIGHT
Zaman said she is “shocked” and “scared” after learning of the source of the smell.
“I feel so sorry for them. The lady once came to buy plants from me, two okra plants, but we didn’t see them much,” she said. “Nobody around here thought the bad smell could be coming from bodies. It’s so horrible.”