A woman described by neighbors as hardworking and friendly was strangled and left lying on the floor with her feet bound inside her Brooklyn apartment Monday, and investigators are now looking to interview her 28-year-old son, according to police and the city medical examiner’s office.
Noreen Mulzac, 70, was found by her daughter’s boyfriend in the bedroom of her home on Flatlands Third Street, between East 105th and East 108th streets, in Canarsie at about 2:15 p.m., cops said. Her legs were bound with a scarf, according to a police source.
The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide Monday evening, citing ligature strangulation as the cause.
Police are looking for her son Jayvon Mulzac, who has six prior arrests, one of which was a violent gunpoint robbery inside the home back in 2006.
According to a criminal complaint, he and two men tied up Mulzac and her daughter and duct-taped Mulzac’s mouth shut. One of the other men allegedly pistol-whipped Mulzac four times, cutting her head, and pulled some of her hair out before threatening to kill her.
Jayvon Mulzac and the two men fled the home with over $3,000 in cash and other valuables, the complaint said. He was charged at the time with assault, burglary, robbery, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of stolen property, among other charges, the complaint said.
Noreen Mulzac, a nurse, “was always taking care of someone,” including multiple children, said one of her neighbors, Amonthia, 40, who declined to give her last name.
“She adopted a lot of kids and took care of them,” said Tamell Halloway, 29, who lives a few houses down from Mulzac.
But Mulzac had a difficult relationship with her children, Hazel Bartley, a fellow nurse who lives across the street from the victim, said.
“I don’t know the kids personally, but I know she didn’t really get along well,” Bartley, 70, said.
“She was a very quiet woman but so nice,” Bartley said, adding that the two often talked to each other about their gardens. “I literally collapsed when the cops told me she died.”
No arrests had been made as of Wednesday afternoon, and police said the investigation was ongoing.
With Adeja Crearer and Alison Fox
