A struggling artist butchered his female roommate inside their Queens apartment on Wednesday night — and then griped about having to find a new place to live, cops and neighbors said.
“I’m not going to have a lease anymore,” fumed suspected killer Render Stetson, as his neighbor, Joshua Cruz, looked on in horror moments after the stabbing.
“He was wearing just underwear,” Cruz recalled. “He was covered in blood.”
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Stetson, a 26-year-old psychedelic illustrator who has worked on short films and music albums, had gotten into an argument with Carolyn Bush, also 26, in her second-floor apartment on Stanhope Street near Onderdonk Avenue in Ridgewood at around 11:25 p.m., according to police.
Neighbors told The Post that Bush was a waitress struggling to pay the rent, so she had been letting Stetson stay and pitch in. The two are both Bard College grads.
Wearing nothing but his boxer briefs, Stetson grabbed a kitchen knife during the dispute and plunged it into Bush’s neck, back and arm — in a bedroom where police later found her sprawled on the floor.
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He then inexplicably stabbed himself in the leg before darting out of the home and down the block, smashing car windows and leaving a thick trail of blood along the way.
After hearing Bush’s “high-pitched” screams, Cruz said he walked outside and spotted a scantily-clad Stetson — still holding the alleged murder weapon.
“He had a bloody kitchen knife in his left hand and a cell phone in his right hand,” Cruz said. “He was saying into the phone, ‘I’m not going to have a lease anymore.’”
After shattering several windows with his hand, Stetson posted up on the street corner and waited for police to arrive, cops said.
“He was a little intoxicated,” Cruz said of the young man’s demeanor. “Drunk or narcotics, I don’t really know…He turned and looked at me and said, ‘What’s your name? I never met you before.’ I didn’t reply, I just started backing up to get behind the gate — and that’s when he lunged at me with a knife. I got behind the metal gate, the door and called the police.”
Stetson was brought to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Authorities later charged him with murder, possession of a weapon, menacing and criminal mischief. Bush was rushed to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, cops said.
Before she was transported to the hospital, the building manager was asked to identify her.
“When they brought her out on the gurney there was a lot of blood,” recalled Pat Castellar, the building manager. “It was coming out on her shoulder and her neck. She looked like she was still alive because when they asked me to come over and see if I recognized her, she moved her head a little. I told him yes, she’s the very nice girl from upstairs.”
Cops said it was unclear what the roommates were arguing about.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” Castellar said. “[Stetson] was a very respectful gentleman. I am very shocked. They’re very nice people, you never hear them.”
Stetson, originally from Rhinebeck, has his own website with trippy sketchings and lithographs, including a movie poster he drew up for the Hunter Thompson flick, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
Bush is also quite the non-conformist, herself — posting several “meta” images and messages to her social media pages, including a shot of her Lars von Trier coffee mugs.
“She’s a beautiful girl inside and out,” said Maria Navarino, Bush’s landlord. “She’s a waitress and she goes to school. She’s lived here close to five years. Very nice girl. Very, very quiet. She didn’t deserve to die like this.”
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram and Daniel Prendergast