NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Devastating new details are emerging about Staten Island schoolteacher Jeanine Cammarata, who police say was murdered by her estranged husband and his girlfriend.
Cammarata's close friend Jessica Pobega told The Daily News that the Cammarata was so giving that she worked several jobs to pay the rent of her estranged husband and his girlfriend – 42-year-old Michael Cammarata and 41-year-old Kangi-Ayisha Egea.
Pobega said Cammarata had plans to save herself from her abusive husband by setting him up with Egea, the mother of one of her students.
But the Cammaratas' two children – ages 3 and 7 – grew so attached to Egea that they started to call her "mommy," even as their own mother was engaged in a fierce custody battle to get them back.
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Cammarata thought her husband would stop stalking her if he was busy with Egea, but that didn't happen.
Instead, police say that when Cammarata went to pick up her two kids at the couple's apartment in Far Rockaway, they killed her, burned her body beyond recognition and hid it in a storage locker.
Her body was discovered surrounded by air freshners in a Staten Island storage facility on Thursday. The charred remains had to be identified by dental records.
People gathered at a memorial outside the New Brighton home of Cammarata on Sunday to hold a vigil for her.
Among those who spoke was her sister, Christine Ross.
"She was brought onto this Earth for a reason, for a purpose," Ross said. "For 37 years, she graced us with her presence."
Ross said Cammarata was "always giving, always kind."
"She will never be forgotten," she said.
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