Heartbreaking photos show mom, two kids cuddling just months before UWS murder-suicide by killer dad
Heartbreaking social media photos show an Upper West Side mom and her two young sons cuddling just a few months before police said they were stabbed to death by their husband and father, who then turned a knife on himself at their home this week.
Alexandra “Ola” Witek, 40, can be seen cradling her sons — 3-year-old Lucian and then-6-month-old Calvin — against her chest while sitting on a bench in a photo uploaded to Facebook on Jan. 3.
“They’re the best,” the doting mom said of her children, in response to a friend’s congratulatory comment.
Another photo from 2016 shows Witek grinning from the edge of a scenic cliffside, while yet more pictures show her happily posing with friends over the years.
Two workers at the family’s West 86th Street apartment building confirmed the images were of Witek, who was found fatally stabbed in her fourth-floor apartment Monday afternoon, along with her two boys.
Police believe Witek’s husband and the boys’ father, building super Edison Lopez, 41, killed his family before fatally stabbing himself, according to law enforcement sources.
The kids’ bodies were so ravaged in the attack that they were initially misidentified as a boy and a girl, the sources said.
Neighbors said Lopez and Witek had grown up on the block together, meeting very young and going to high school together.
Her dad used to be a doorman across the street, and his father was the super of the couple’s building until Lopez took over for him.
Both were first-generation Americans, with Lopez’s family hailing from Venezuela and Witek’s roots being in Poland.
“They grew up here,” a family friend, who said he had been a super on the same block for 35 years, told The Post, adding that he was “shaking inside.”
“This is crazy,” the distraught man said. “I know him since he was a little boy and she was a little girl. I have seen them together when they were young.”
“I didn’t see this coming. I’ve never seen [Lopez] angry, never. I’ve never seen them fighting,” the family friend said in disbelief.
Jimmy, the block’s longtime postman, was also shocked by news of the family’s grisly demise.
“I used to deliver his pampers for the baby, the one year-old. I used to chat with him, ‘How are you doing Edison? How is everything?’ He’d say, ‘OK.’ I always asked him, ‘How is the family?’ He’d always say, ‘Good,’” he told The Post.
“That’s not in his character,” Jimmy continued.
“[Lopez] was always nice…calm. You don’t see nothing that would lead, let’s say, trigger something like this. I feel sad.
“How can you do this, not only to yourself, but do it to your kids and your wife?”
Before the baffling suspected murder-suicide, the family had no emergency call history that indicated domestic troubles at home, according to sources.
An acquaintance of the couple shared with The Post a photo of Lopez lined up as a groomsman and grinning in an undated image.
The family of four was found when Lopez’s father called Witek’s younger brother after being unable to reach the family since Sunday, sources said.
The pair alerted authorities when they drilled through the apartment lock and saw blood inside.
“He went in the other building to get a hammer. He came back out real fast and he went back over there [to the apartment]. That’s when he probably saw it,” the longtime family friend and fellow super said of the moments just before Lopez’s father entered the crime scene.
Lucian and Calvin were subsequently found stabbed to death in the living room with two knives nearby, sources said, while Witek was found in the hallway with a deep neck wound.
Lopez was discovered lying on the bed in a bedroom, also with a stab wound.
A third knife was found lying beside his body, sources said.
The apartment door was locked from the inside, police said.
The family may have been facing pressure to move out of their apartment in the weeks before the shocking incident as Lopez had apparently gotten a new job in Westchester, acquaintances said Tuesday.
“I saw him on Friday…he said he was leaving for another job and they were giving him like two weeks to get out,” the family friend, who declined to give his name, recalled of his last interaction with Lopez.
“He was upset or something…like, worried. I have never seen him like that,” the super said.
A doorman outside the family’s building confirmed that Lopez talked about moving in recent weeks, but said it seemed like the dad was “excited” about the prospect.
“He was expected to go to a new job. He was telling everybody about it — more space for his kids…he was excited,” the doorman said.
“Nobody knows what was going on. He was such a quiet guy, very nice. I don’t know how something like this could have happened.”
Another family friend, Alfonso Barrera, told The Post the family’s demise left him “feeling like death.”
“I feel like he is part of my family,” the 84-year-old said from the doorstep of the apartment building, where a couple bouquets of flowers had already been laid Tuesday.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
