Daughter eerily claims ‘I never had a mother’ after allegedly stabbing 84-year-old mom to death in NY Thanksgiving Eve attack
A Queens woman allegedly stabbed her elderly mom to death in a Thanksgiving Eve attack on Long Island – and eerily claimed that she “never had a mother” after her arrest, according to cops and a report.
Diana Bekatoros, 51, is accused of knifing 84-year-old Josephine Bekatoros “multiple times” just after 9 p.m. Wednesday inside the older woman’s home on the tree-lined Carman Court in Dix Hills, Suffolk County?cops and prosecutors?said.
“I never had a mother,” the arrested woman, seen with her hands shackled, told a Newsday photographer outside the Fourth Precinct stationhouse in Hauppage Thursday?when asked if she had stabbed?her mother.
“Are you my mother?” she bizarrely added, according to the report.
“I don’t even know what you are talking about,” Bekatoros reportedly replied when questioned a second time.
The slain woman’s husband Dennis Bekatoros had gone to his room to watch TV after sharing a family dinner Wednesday night – and stepped out to find his mortally wounded wife on the floor and called 911,?News 12 reported.
Diana Bekatoros was later?arrested at her home on Center Boulevard in Long Island City. She was charged with second-degree murder and ordered held without bail during her Thanksgiving Day arraignment, according to cops and?prosecutors.
The judge pointed out that Bekatoros?“was smiling inappropriately at this serious charge” and ordered a psychiatric evaluation during the hearing, according to News 12.?
Bekatoros pleaded not guilty, records show.?
The elderly couple’s home is one of around seven on a quiet roundabout block, about a minute walk from a cemetery.?
All of the homes are on large properties with three-bay garages and inground pools.
A neighbor who lives across the street described the deadly domestic violence as “shocking” and “completely unexpected.”
“To be honest, I’m just really sad,” the woman, who declined to give her name, told The Post Friday. “I knew [Josephine] and she was a very good lady.”?
She said that Diana used to visit the home “occasionally.”
“I’ve met her daughter once or twice,” the woman added. “She seemed to be a nice person but we never know what goes on.”?
Neighbor Helene Glodowski, 74, told Newsday that the deadly stabbing?also?left her “shocked.”?
“I can’t believe it,” added Glodowski, who said she had lived across from Josephine?and?Dennis Bekatoros since 1989.
Diana used to live with her parents as well – and despite moving out about 15 years ago, appeared to have a “mother-daughter friends” relationship with her mom, Glodowski said.
Josephine and Dennis had a small dog, and a son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter who now live in Nassau County, Glodowski told the outlet.
The couple’s granddaughter, Mia, told The Post that her father, Peter, is “doing as well as anyone would be doing in this situation.”
But Peter was not home Friday afternoon and Mia said she “didn’t want to speak on his behalf.”?
Josephine was always “meticulously dressed” and “very careful with her appearance,”?Glodowski?said.
“She was a lovely lady,”?the?neighbor told Newsday. “It?seemed like she got along with everyone.”
Bekatoros’?assigned defense counsel, Daniel Russo,?said he couldn’t comment to The Post Friday, as he had not yet met with his client.
