Manorville man charged with murder for allegedly killing woman in July

Suffolk County police have charged a Manorville man with murder after a woman’s body was discovered July 30 in a wooded area just east of Winding Path.

Homicide squad detectives on Thursday arrested Faustino Marquez-Cruz, 27, for killing Carmelina Maria Velasquez-Zhau, 37. The cause of death was strangulation, police said.

They both lived at the same address at 170 Wading River Road in Manorville, police said.

Mr. Marquez-Cruz is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip Friday.

Police had not previously disclosed the identity of the victim, only saying that she had been tentatively identified pending DNA analysis. Ms. Velasquez-Zhau was discovered by a home health aide who was jogging while visiting a resident of Villas at North Pine Hills on the morning of July 30. She was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner.

Police said early in the investigation that an autopsy showed no signs of injury.