A Edgemere man has been charged with murder after prosecutors say he shot his girlfriend in the head, buried her body in a shallow grave at a Queens park, and then called 911 to report her missing two days after she died. Rogelio Lozano-Garita faces second-degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon, concealing a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence charges in the killing of 35-year-old Seraphina Pereira.
According to the Queens County District Attorney, Lozano-Garita shot Pereira in the head on October 19 sometime between 2:16 a.m. and 6:04 a.m. Prosecutors say he then concealed her body in a shallow grave at Rockaway Community Park before calling 911 two days later, on October 21, to report her missing. The DA's office says a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the charges remain allegations that have not been proven in court.
The couple lived together in Edgemere with their two young children and Pereira's child from a previous relationship, prosecutors said. As reported by Gothamist, Pereira had four children in total, ages 14, 12, 6 and 5, along with two stepchildren. Gothamist also reported that Lozano-Garita, described as Pereira's 26-year-old ex-boyfriend, was arrested on October 26 after police discovered her body, and that the medical examiner determined she had been shot several times. Pereira had gone missing from her Ocean Bay Apartments home, per the same account.
Other Recent Domestic Violence Cases
Gothamist's report ties the Pereira case to other recent violence in the city, including the killing of 24-year-old Tania Morales, allegedly stabbed dozens of times by her estranged husband, Angel Apodaca, while their 2-year-old child was home. The child was found with blood on his clothes, but doctors confirmed he was not harmed, the outlet noted. Separately, QNS reported that prosecutors say Apodaca stabbed Morales to death in her Kew Gardens Hills apartment on October 26 while their 2-year-old son was in the home; QNS said the boy was evaluated at a hospital and determined to have no physical injuries.
News 12 Brooklyn reported on a third recent case, in which 38-year-old Vanessa Edmonds was hospitalized in a burn unit after authorities said her husband set her on fire in front of their young daughter. The outlet also reported that 23-year-old Nathaly Ramirez died after being pushed from a 15th-floor balcony by her ex-boyfriend while holding their 8-month-old daughter; News 12 Brooklyn said the infant survived. These cases come from separate news reports and are not evidence of a broader citywide trend, though NYPD detectives arrested the three women's male partners in the days following the attacks, per Gothamist.
What the City's Numbers Show
Citywide, NYPD data cited by Gothamist show domestic-incident homicides held steady at 48 so far in 2026, the same number recorded during the comparable period in 2025. Reported domestic-violence assaults totaled 24,829 so far this year, 273 fewer than at the same point last year, according to NYPD figures in the same report. Those assault reports had risen roughly 3% from 2024 to 2025, even as overall murders dropped 19% and shootings fell 23% over that same stretch, the outlet reported.citing police data.
Bishop Boyde Y. Singletary, who leads Brothers in Purple, told Gothamist that six women who were victims of domestic violence were buried in the previous three months. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch created a dedicated domestic violence unit in October 2025, which Gothamist described as the largest of its kind in the country, centralizing domestic-violence cases under the Detectives Bureau and assigning more than 450 officers to focus on the issue across city precincts.
Data Collection and Reporting Differences
New York City's domestic-violence assault categories differ from the rest of the state's standard crime-reporting categories. According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, the city uses categories of felonious assault and assault third degree and related offenses, rather than the aggravated and simple assault categories used elsewhere in the state, with figures derived from the top charge of a reported complaint and relationship data collected by the NYPD's crime-reporting system. Separately, Local Law 38 of 2019 requires annual reports on domestic-violence indicators; the NYPD also publishes monthly complaint and radio-run statistics.
Support organizations named in Gothamist's reporting include Safe Horizon, which provided a hotel room for Pereira's family, along with We All Really Matter, also known as WARM, and Sisters and Brothers in Purple. The city's Family Justice Centers, available in every borough, offer case management, counseling, mental health, legal and immigration services, while the Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence runs workshops in housing complexes and high schools across the city. New Yorkers can reach the NYC Domestic Violence Support Hotline at 1-800-621-HOPE, or use the NYC Hope Resource Directory for online support.
If convicted, Lozano-Garita faces up to 25 years to life in prison, according to the Queens DA's office. The case remains pending, and prosecutors have emphasized that the charges against him are allegations, not a finding of guilt.
