A Yonkers man accused of running over his ex-wife and then hacking her to death with a machete in the Bronx last month is now in NYPD custody and awaiting justice, cops announced Tuesday.
Pennsylvania police nabbed 63-year-old Victor Mateo of Yonkers, who had allegedly driven over and then fatally slashed his estranged wife with a machete on the end of Ellsworth Avenue in Throggs Neck on Oct. 10.
Mateo was found in Hazelton, Pennsylvania on after cruising 136 miles while spending a week on the lam after allegedly killing 58-year-old Noelia Mateo of Ellsworth Avenue on Oct. 4.
Upon his extradition, Mateo was charged with murder, manslaughter, acting in a manner to injure a child, and criminal possession of a weapon.
(Crime Stoppers)
Police received a 911 call about an incident at the Mateo home at 7 a.m. on Oct. 3. At around the same time, neighbors said they were startled by the sound of a car crash.
After Victor tried to hit his ex with his own vehicle, she crawled under her own car while its engine was running, according to eyewitness and neighbor Victor DiChristina.
Police sources said that Victor Mateo then jumped into Noelia’s car and allegedly drove it back and forth over his ex at least four times. Cops said he then pulled out of the vehicle and allegedly pulled a machete on the defenseless woman as she laid in the street.
“At first it seemed like she was trying to reach for something under her car and he was helping her out,” DiChristina said, noting that he didn’t witness the earlier car crash.
“Then it looked like he was just hitting her. I didn’t see the machete,” the eyewitness continued.
When DiChristina saw Victor Mateo attacking Noelia, the witness ran over from his house to confront the attacker in the street.
“I told him to stop, then I looked for a stick to go over there and get him off of her,” he said. “But then I saw that he had a machete and realized there wasn’t anything that I could do but call the police,” DiChristina recounted while remaining on the scene of the crime.
“Then he drove away in her car, just leaving the woman on the street,” he explained.
Paramedics responded to the scene and rushed Noelia to Jacobi Hospital, where she died later that morning.
DiChristina said he had only seen Noelia around the neighborhood for just over a year and never spoke personally with her, mentioning that he had never seen Victor prior to the killing.
Sources said that the previously married couple had formerly lived in Westchester.
