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Emilio Delarosa: Massachusetts Man Wanted For Strangling Girlfriend In Front Of Son

By Leigh Egan
Published on: 07:38 PST, Sep 14, 2016

Police are searching for a Lawrence, Massachusetts, man who’s accused of strangling his wife to death in front of their 4-year-old son on Monday.

The Boston Globe reports that Delarosa, 32, reportedly abused his former girlfriend, Wanda Rosa, 29, for years, which ended on Monday night after he allegedly choked her to death while his 4-year-old son screamed and pleaded for him to stop. Delarosa covered Rosa with a purple quilt afterward, and took his son over to his mother’s house. According to police documents, Delarosa’s sister called the police after he drove away, leaving his son behind. Before he left, he reportedly said,

“It’s over. It’s over. It’s over.”

Police broke into the Rosa’s apartment, off of Tudor Street, a little before 6:00 a.m., where they found her lifeless, laying on her bed. She was officially pronounced dead after authorities rushed her to the Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.

The Essex Children’s Advocacy Center interviewed the little boy afterward, and as he relived the traumatic experience, he told social workers that he asked his dad to stop hurting his mom on several different occasions, but his father “went crazy and choked Mommy” until “she died.”

The argument apparently began to spiral out of control at around 3:00 a.m., when neighbors reported hearing screaming and fighting coming from the victim’s apartment. One neighbor heard the child scream, “No Dad, No Dad!” The noise stopped shortly after, which, explained the neighbor, is why she didn’t call the police for help.

Authorities indicated that Delarosa had threatened to kill his wife a number of times over the past several years. In 2010, he slammed Rosa’s head onto the dashboard of his truck after she went to a bachelorette party, where she was “drinking and having a good time.”

In 2011, he said, “this child is going to be left without a mom,” before putting a gun to Rosa’s head and smothering her with a pillow until she blacked out. When she woke up, she promised to move to Florida with him in an attempt to placate him before he hurt her again or hurt their son.

While riding with Delarosa down Interstate 95, Rosa managed to escape from him at a New Jersey rest area, where good Samaritans helped her hide until the police showed up. He ended up behind bars for a few years after the attack, and although Rosa placed a restraining order on him, she had it modified earlier this year, after his release, so that her son could spend more time with his father.

According to Rosa’s friend, Edinson Corporan, the final attack happened after Rosa was intent on allowing her son to know his dad, and giving him the opportunity to have a “daddy figure” in his life.

“This happened to her because of her being such a loving person, such a forgiving person. She was trying to have a daddy figure there for her son.”

The Eagle-Tribune reports another friend, Melinda Maldonado, of Lawrence, told Rosa to be careful, before Delarosa’s release from prison earlier this year. Maldonado said she warned her friend to leave the area before Delarosa arrived, but Rosa was intent on letting him see his son again.

“At one point she knew he was going to come out soon and she was going to leave the state because she was scared. But I honestly don’t know why she didn’t leave. She was giving him an opportunity to be a father despite everything he had put her through.”

On Tuesday evening, a warrant for Emilio Delarosa was officially issued. He’s charged with murder. Anyone with information on his whereabouts should call the Methuen Police Department immediately.

[Photo by the Methuen Police Department]

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