A church-going great-grandmother was found viciously murdered in her Brooklyn apartment early yesterday, and grieving relatives are mystified as to why anyone would want to kill her.
Gloria Boney, 69, was found dead just after midnight yesterday on the bedroom floor of her Crown Heights home by cops who entered after her daughter Marlene, 35, went to check on her and no one answered the door.
Marlene said she became worried after her mother – a retired child-care worker who lived alone – didn’t return repeated calls Saturday.
“We thought something was wrong . . . It’s not like her to not answer the phone, so I went and found her,” she said.
“She liked church, she loved singing and she loved her children. It was her birthday last week and she took her first trip to Atlantic City on Thursday.”
Boney, a mother of seven, grandmother of 14 and great-grandmother of one, was stabbed several times in the head and also strangled, according to the city medical examiner’s spokeswoman Ellen Borakove.
Marlene said her mom, from Trinidad, had lived in the second-floor apartment on Union Street for more than 12 years. Her husband died in 1993.
Police sources said there was no sign of forced entry or robbery. Neighbors said they did not hear any sounds of a struggle Saturday night.
But when the body was found, “everybody was screaming and crying . . . we ran out and found out something terrible had happened,” said a neighbor who asked not to be identified.
Another neighbor, Anna Williams, said, “It’s crazy someone would want to kill her.”
Neighbor Ann Ahyoung said, “I’ll miss her beautiful singing. Every time you pass by her door she’s singing hymns. I won’t hear that voice anymore.”
Relatives said a viewing will be held Friday at Flatlands Church of Christ in Brooklyn and a funeral will be held there Saturday.