Leondra Foster: Woman, 32, trying to flee abuse dismembered in Brooklyn
Sanitation workers found the torso of 32-year-old Leondra Foster in trash bins in New York and New Jersey on Jan. 17, 2017. Her head and feet were found in the icebox of her sex offender boyfriend, police said.
BROOKLYN, NY -- Leondra Foster loved having a good time. The 32-year-old knew she needed to make some changes in her life, and she'd hoped that 2017 would allow her to do that. Her family begged and pleaded with her to make this change: Leave your abusive boyfriend.
Still, Foster, the mother of a 16-year-old, stayed with him. But she had been abused for months and months on end, making it difficult for her family to see her suffer.
She was trying to figure out a way to leave him. Alas, on Jan. 17, she finally did. Leondra Foster left the world.
That's the day, sanitation workers found a woman's torso and leg in the trash at a waste transfer site in Brooklyn.
Law enforcement officials said Foster's murder is the most brutal and gruesome slaying many of them have ever seen.
A grand jury heard the case Tuesday against Foster's boyfriend and longtime pimp, Somorie Moses. Prosecutors allege that Moses dismembered his ex-girlfriend and dumped her body in the trash.
The woman's father, Kenneth Foster, told The New York Post on Tuesday that his daughter, had been in grave danger for months by her sex-offender boyfriend, Moses.
Leondra Foster’s mother, Sandra Figueroa said that her daughter's death should be a wake-up call to women.
“This shouldn’t happen to any woman,” the 54-year-old told the New York Daily News.
The victim’s cousin, Carmen Figueroa, 59, said Foster thought her man would kill her if she told anyone of the abuse.
“The man was a monster,” Carmen Figueroa was quoted as saying. “Women should see this and open up. They don’t need to go through this. People should open doors for abused women.”
“He has a thing against women,” Kenneth Foster said. “We tried to get her to leave him, but she would just get mad at us. I guess she had battered-woman syndrome.”
His daughter's killer wanted to make sure no one would ever find her again. Leondra Foster's dismembered limbs were found in separate trash bins in New York and New Jersey.
When police investigated Moses' residence last week, they found Foster's head and feet in a freezer.
Leondra Foster's family outside the courthouse in Brooklyn, New York.
The killer deserves “medieval torture for the rest of his life,” Foster told the Post. “You cannot be human and do something like that — you’re an animal.”
Still, the evidence against Moses is just circumstantial; he is charged with second-degree murder and concealing the corpse in the slaying. Law enforcement officials said that he coerced a garbage man to help him dispose of the body.
Eleven years ago, Moses was convicted of enticing a 16-year-old into prostitution, according to media reports.
Still, Moses' attorney said the case is not as easy for prosecutors as they think.
"My client has a constitutional right to be presumed innocent," defense attorney Amy Rameau said, according to Brooklyn 12 News. "There's a lot more to it, and you'll see that unfold in the courtroom, where it's appropriate."
