Francis Angelica Alfonso Pellerano. Image from NBC10/turnto10.com
WPRO Newsroom
A 19-year-old woman who studied at the Rhode Island School for the Deaf was found dead in a New York apartment this weekend, according to reports.
The woman, Francis Alfonso Pellerano, was a student at the school until last November. Reports say that Pellerano’s body was discovered inside a 55-gallon drum in an apartment in Harlem. NBC 10 says Pellerano had gone to New York with a boy she met on Facebook who was also deaf. It was his grandmother that found the body after smelling a foul odor.
New York Neighborhood News reports that Pellerano was allegedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend, who police say may suffer from bipolar disorder. Pellerano had moved in with him several months ago but sources say she had been considering leaving him.
The boyfriend has not been named but reports say he is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
Locally, the Rhode Island School for the Deaf is planning a memorial service to honor the memory of Pellerano.
Nancy McGuire Heath, the school’s director, said those who knew Pellerano are reacting with “shock and terrible dismay and sadness [and] tears.”
“This is a horrible gruesome tragedy; a very, very unfortunate situation for a beautiful young woman,” McGuire Heath told WPRO Friday.
The school is also collecting donations to send to Pellerano’s family to defray the costs of having her body flown to the Dominican Republic, where they live.
Donations can be sent to the Rhode Island School for the Deaf, 1 Corliss Park, Providence, RI. Checks should be made out to Rose Quigley and should indicate in the memo that they are for Pellerano.
The date of the memorial service is yet to be determined, though McGuire Heath said it will be held within the next few weeks.
“We hope people will be able to focus on all the good things about [Pellerano] and try not to focus on the facts of this awful tragedy,” she said.
