HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — Police have arrested a Long Island man who is accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and dumping her body on the side of a road in Queens.
The victim's sister said Vanessa Pierre had a smile that lit up the room. She had a good job as a nurse practitioner and always wanted a family.
Pierre was six months pregnant with a girl. She had already bought baby clothes and planned to name her baby Egypt.
"She was very excited about the baby, she used to come here all the time," her sister said.
"Vanessa was the best, she was sweet, she was kind," her best friend said.
But the NYPD said the 29-year-old Hempstead woman was murdered, just three months shy of giving birth.
Prosecutors say surveillance video showed Pierre's boyfriend, 29-year-old Goey Charles of Uniondale, pull over on Horace Harding Expressway around 2:50 a.m. Friday.
Charles got out of the driver’s seat of a 2019 white Dodge Challenger, which belonged to the victim, and he moved to the backseat where Pierre could be seen moving.
A short time later, all movement had stopped and prosecutors said the victim appeared to lay across the backseat motionless.
Shortly after 4:30 a.m., surveillance video released by police allegedly shows Charles dragging Pierre's body out the car and dumping her remains on the side of the expressway near Bell Boulevard in Bayside. He then drove off in the victim's car.
A passerby found Pierre's body laying facedown on the sidewalk about 90 minutes later. Prosecutors said the victim had gray sweatpants wrapped around her neck.
The New York Post reports Pierre had been strangled.
The victim's sister said, "I got a bad vibe about him and I always told her I didn't like him. I felt like he was using her for her money."
The two had been dating for about a year.
"She loved him, she wanted a family, but I told her this man is not it. He was a pathological liar," Pierre's sister said.
Charles is charged with second-degree murder.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said, “This is a heartbreaking case. A pregnant woman was allegedly killed by this defendant – the father of her unborn child. Her family is devastated. The defendant is in custody and will answer for his alleged actions.”
If convicted, Charles faces up to 25 years to life in prison.