Pregnant woman found slain day before wedding

A US woman who was eight months pregnant was found stabbed to death on Saturday in her apartment, the day before her wedding, police said.

Vindalee Smith, 38, was found on the floor of her apartment in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn with a gaping wound in her neck. It was not clear how long she had been dead before she was discovered by her landlord. Her unborn child did not survive.

There was no sign of forced entry, and no weapon was recovered, police said. Investigators are looking for a possible suspect. They interviewed her friends and family, and spoke to her fiancé .

“I can’t even begin to imagine who would want to do that,” her friend, Sybil Samuel, told local newspapers. “It would be the devil, to kill a woman with a child in her stomach. They killed two people.”

Smith had four children in their teens and 20s, friends said. A baby shower had been planned for Saturday evening, followed by a small wedding yesterday. Friends told reporters that Smith had met her fiancé about a year ago.

Smith was a devout Seventh Day Adventist and attended New Dimension Church, where she was supposed to get married. Members became concerned when she did not go to morning service.

“She was always on time — always the first person at church,” Tyler Harrigan told the Daily News of New York.