Cops arrested a suspect Tuesday in the murder of a Midwood woman, finding him in a Brooklyn psychiatric facility after a failed suicidal leap in front of an oncoming subway train and a note linking him to the crime.
Ronald Friedfertig, 62, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his live-in girlfriend, Yvonne Gefner, 57. He was also charged with two counts of weapon possession.
A foul odor led police to the victim’s Avenue N home last Wednesday. Cops discovered Gefner’s decomposing body inside the bedroom. Her head had been bludgeoned and her back was bloody from multiple stab wounds. A note was found attached to the body, and said, “I killed my wife, she was casting spells on me,” according to a New York Post report.
When the cops found Friedfertig he allegedly told them, that Gefner had been practicing some kind of voodoo.
The suspect injured himself on May 21, when he leapt in front of a Manhattan-bound Q train at the Avenue J subway station near E. 16th Street. After surviving the suicide attempt, he was taken to Kings County Hospital.
Neighbors who knew Friedfertig said he was an unbalanced and aggressive man, prone to shouting unwarranted threats.
“They were arguing a lot,” neighbor Moshe Handler, 58, told the Post. “He was always yelling things like, ‘I’m going to get you! I will teach you a lesson you’ll never forget!’ ”
Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.
