By Nathan Duke
The family of a 23-year-old Astoria woman found dead in her apartment last weekend encircled the victim’s wailing mother Monday afternoon as the body was removed from the apartment that the two women shared for many years on 30th Avenue.
The mother of Carmen Saldana-Mundo discovered her daughter’s body in her bed Sunday evening when she returned to Astoria after having worked the weekend in Long Island, said Ali Rodriguez, a cousin from the Bronx. Both had moved to the United States from Mexico City when Saldana-Mundo was a child and shared the apartment on 30th Avenue.
“She was a good person,” Rodriguez said. “She was a very quiet girl. But she looked happy the last time I saw her.”
Saldana-Mundo’s death was ruled a homicide Monday evening, a spokeswoman for the city’s chief medical examiner said. The medical examiner determined the victim had died from asphyxiation.
Saldana-Mundo had been attending Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology as a part-time student and working as a waitress, Rodriguez said.
“She was taking graphic design classes and decorating her room,” the victim’s cousin said. “She had a lot of things going on.”
Saldana-Mundo’s mother had been baby-sitting in Long Island during the weekend, Rodriguez said. She returned home around 10 p.m. Sunday night to find her daughter’s body in the apartment.
Upon arriving at the apartment, emergency responders found the victim unconscious. The door to the apartment had been broken, police said.
No arrests had made in the case as of Tuesday evening, police said.
Saldana-Mundo’s mother cried out, “Carmen, my daughter,” in Spanish as her daughter’s body was removed from the apartment just before noon Monday, while family members from the Bronx fanned her and rubbed the shoulders of the victim’s father. Saldana-Mundo’s parents are divorced.
Residents along the busy Astoria strip said they were shocked by the woman’s death because the community is typically very safe.
“It’s really safe here,” said Dulce Palma, who lives down the street from Saldana-Mundo’s apartment. “Nothing really happens here. Now, we have to be careful when we walk at night.”
According to her MySpace page, Saldana-Mundo was taking marketing and advertising classes at FIT.
A statement by FIT said the school was “extremely saddened” by Saldana-Mundo’s death.
“By all accounts, she was a vivacious young woman and a dedicated student,” the statement read. “Her death is a great loss.”
On her MySpace page, Saldana-Mundo wrote that she had previously lived in Las Vegas before moving back to Astoria two years ago. She also wrote that her mother was her hero.
The New York Post reported that the victim had previously been married, but gotten a divorce. In a recent Facebook post, Saldana-Mundo had written that a man in whom she was not interested would not leave her alone, the Post reported.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
