NYC vigil to honor woman stabbed to death in Manhattan apartment
EAST HARLEM, N.Y. (PIX11) — A vigil will be held Monday for a woman whose boyfriend allegedly stabbed her to death in the bathtub of her Manhattan apartment last week.
The candlelight ceremony for Melanie Woods will be at 2272 Second Ave. near 117th Street in East Harlem at 5 p.m., according to organizers.
Authorities found Woods, 33, unconscious with multiple stab wounds to the neck and body in the bathtub of her Second Avenue apartment at around 7:15 pm. on April 23, according to the criminal complaint. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Prosecutors said the victim had more than 20 stab wounds.
Woods went to UCLA and earned a master’s degree in Public Health from Columbia University. She worked at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the CDC Foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Corps Workforce, organizers said.
“When she left to pursue a degree at Columbia University, I made her promise me that we’d have the chance to work together again,” a friend wrote on Facebook. “To know that her death was an act of violence likely committed by an ex is beyond comprehensible.”
The victim’s boyfriend, Candido Rodriguez, 51, of Manhattan, was arrested Thursday and charged with murder, prosecutors said. Rodriguez allegedly killed Woods at around 8 a.m. on April 23 before he was caught on surveillance video leaving the apartment, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Friday and was held without bail, according to court records.
Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the New York City area for more than a decade. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
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