By Betsy Scheinbart
A Rosedale family was in shambles Sunday after the father was murdered and his daughter, a corrections officer, was arrested for allegedly assaulting her sister, police said.
Jacques Dasque, 62, was found dead in the basement of his single-family home at 249-11 147th Rd. in Rosedale at about 7:30 a.m. He sustained trauma to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene, said Officer Joseph Cavitolo, a police spokesman.
Just a few hours earlier at the same address in the middle-class neighborhood, a 31-year-old woman was struck on the head, Cavitolo said. Renee Dasque, 36, who neighbors said is the victim’s sister, was charged with the assault.
Renee Dasque was on medical leave from her job as a corrections officer at Rikers Island, a position she has held since 1991, said Sandra Lewis Smith, a commissioner for the city Corrections Department.
Next-door-neighbor Steve Scalfani was awakened at 2:40 a.m. Sunday when a bloodied and screaming Jeanine Dasque banged on his door.
“First I heard a big scream, dog barking, and she came out wailing, bleeding, saying ‘Oh my God’,” Scalfani said.
“She looked terrible with blood all over her shirt,” Scalfani said. He could not tell where the woman was cut because she was bleeding so heavily, wiping her face with her shirt and holding her head in her hands.
“She said, ‘Someone hit me with a pipe,’” Scalfani recounted, but the woman did not identify her attacker. “She was in a daze,” he said.
Police could not confirm that Jeanine was hit with a pipe nor was the type of murder weapon used on her father known, Cavitolo said.
As of press time Tuesday night, no one had been charged with Jacques Dasque’s murder.
He died from multiple blunt impacts to the head, fractures to the skull and injuries to the brain, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office.
Jeanine Dasque was treated for a laceration and released from Franklin Hospital in Valley Stream.
Scalfani described Jacques Dasque as a “nice man” who was quiet and “minded his own business.”
Jacques Dasque worked as a technician in the radiology department at Jamaica Hospital for more than 20 years before retiring in 1994, said Michael Hink, a hospital spokesman.
“He was a very good employee, never had any problems,” Hink said. Dasque’s last post at the hospital was the weekend supervisor of the Radiology Department, Hink said.
Scalfani said he never saw the family members arguing. “They got along as well as I know,” he said. “It seemed like they were happy.”
Across the street from the brick and frame home where the Dasque family lived, Richard Dixon agreed that the family seemed fine before Sunday. The sisters would often pass by his house, wave and say hello, he said.
“They never had any arguments outside,” Dixon said.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300 Ext. 138.
