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Cambria Heights slay stuns neighbors

Cambria Heights slay stuns neighbors
By Howard Koplowitz

A 14-year-old Cambria Heights girl was found dead inside her home Sunday afternoon in an incident that was labeled a homicide, police said.

Sabrina Matthews was discovered unconscious and unresponsive by emergency medical personnel inside 119-41 234th St., police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene at around 1:15 p.m., authorities said.

A spokeswoman for the city medical examiner said Matthews’ throat was slit and she died from a wound to her larynx.

Police were investigating whether a boyfriend the 14-year-old met on the Internet killed Matthews, according to the New York Post.

Livingston Matthews, the girl’s father, was observed being taken into a police vehicle that drove away from the scene.

 He was questioned at the 105th Precinct station house but was not considered to be a suspect, the Post reported.

Matthews’ mother was heard wailing cries of “Oh God!” from next door after her daughter was found dead.

She then left her next-door-neighbor’s house hysterically crying “Oh God! My daughter!” while looking at her home.

Matthews was a freshman at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village and was described by one neighbor as a quiet girl.

“It was crazy, very crazy,” he said, referring to her murder. “I can’t think of why it happened.”

He said he saw the girl’s distraught mother running into the street from the beige stucco and brick house.

“She just started crying and falling down in the street — just crying,” he said.

He said the incident was out of character for the middle-class neighborhood.

“It’s a good neighborhood, but this can happen anywhere — even Beverly Hills, for crying out loud.”

Police said there was no history of social workers being called to the home, although there were three domestic incident reports filed.

Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.