The widow of a man who died on a New York subway train before his corpse was robbed by two different people and then allegedly sexually violated by one of the assailants says learning of her mostly estranged husband’s grim fate left her “shocked” as well as worried for her ill mother-in-law.
In an interview published on Tuesday by the New York Daily News, the woman said the last thing she expected was to learn from investigators the horrifying details concerning the death of 37-year-old Jorge Gonzalez, as authorities asked for help in finding suspects.
She reportedly said she was talking to officers on speakerphone about Gonzalez’s death and his body’s alleged mistreatment when the couple’s 13-year-old son overheard the conversation.
“I didn’t realize that’s what they were going to tell me – until it was too late,” the woman, whom the outlet identified only as Teresa, said to the Daily News. She recounted that her son’s reaction was to lament: “Now I really don’t have a dad.”
Teresa, a 38-year-old Brooklyn resident, used her interview to humanize a man whose body was allegedly subjected to a paraphilia that psychiatrists assume to be among the rarest – and which is criminal to act on in most US states, including New York.
The US-born Teresa described meeting Gonzalez in the small Mexican town from which he hailed and where she had family. She was celebrating her 15th birthday – or her quinceañera, a traditional milestone in Mexico – at the time. They fell in love and married when she was 24, after Gonzalez moved to the US to start a new life, as the Daily News put it.
Gonzalez worked in construction and restaurants – and he would treat Teresa to steak, sushi and taco dinners that she savored, she said. Their son was born about the time they wed, and she recalled the couple enjoying a fleeting spell of happiness before a descent into alcohol addiction cost him multiple jobs.
Teresa said he eventually abandoned his wife and their child without ever calling them more than “once or twice”. He tried repeated stints in rehab but was unable to stay sober, she said.
“That’s the biggest reason why he ended up in the situation where he was,” Teresa told the Daily News of her husband. “There was just no way for him to stop.”
Teresa said investigators told her Gonzalez had died of cirrhosis of the liver stemming from his years-long alcoholism. An initial autopsy reportedly did not determine Gonzalez’s cause of death, with additional tests pending.
Citing transit sources, the publication reported that a subway conductor found Gonzalez’s body on an idling train at the Whitehall Street stop in lower Manhattan at about 12.30am on 9 April. Authorities reportedly determined he had gotten on the train more than four hours earlier. They learned of the alleged abuse to the corpse and thefts after reviewing train surveillance camera footage.
The footage depicted a man who encountered Gonzalez, discerned he was dead, took belongings from his pockets and then sexually violated the body, the Daily News reported, attributing the information to police sources.
The suspected attacker – apparently a stranger to Gonzalez – allegedly left the body alone after more than an hour. A woman then stumbled upon the body and stole more belongings out of his pocket, police said.
About 20 minutes later, the train conductor found Gonzalez’s body and reported the discovery to authorities.
Police subsequently released surveillance images of two suspects in connection with the case and requested the public’s help in finding them. One is wanted for sexual misconduct with a dead human body and the other for grand larceny, police have said.
No arrests had been announced as of Tuesday evening.
“I was shocked – just shocked and more than anything scared for [Gonzalez’s] mom,” Teresa said of what her late husband endured. “She has advanced diabetes so anything can set her off.
“I was scared more than anything for her.”
