Bronx Mom Nearly Killed in Machete Attack Had Order of Protect Against Ex, Family Says (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)
Victim Lisbeth Acosta (Obtained by IBEX News)
(IBEXNews) - Lisbeth Acosta moved from New Jersey all the way to the Bronx to get away from her abusive ex. But that, and an order of protection, wasn’t enough to save her from his unhinged fury.
Now the 20-year-old mom is clinging to life after Hector Delacruz, the father of her child, allegedly ambushed her in the lobby of her new home about 9:15 p.m. Friday, hacking her repeatedly with a machete.
Horrifying pictures shared with the Daily News by the victim’s devastated father show she was sliced across her face down to the bone. The blow was so forceful Acosta needed eight hours of surgery at St. Barnabas Hospital to reconstruct her jaw and mouth, her family said.
“We’re hoping that God does his work and that she gets better,” the victim’s aunt, Lina Tejeda, 62, told The News in Spanish. “She’s stable right now . . . We hope God will let her recover.”
Lisbeth Acosta will need surgery on her arm soon and needed dozens of stitches to close the wound to her hand. (Obtained by IBEX News)
She was also hacked in the back of her neck and right hand as she desperately tried to escape the lobby of the Grand Concourse building near E. 196th St. in Fordham Manor, leaving her in critical condition.
“She was laying there, there was blood everywhere,” said one neighbor who didn’t want to be named. The neighbor said she and others had seen the ex-boyfriend lurking in the building beforehand without realizing who he was, or why he was there.
“He was in her hallway for a few hours, just standing outside her door, waiting for her to come," the neighbor said.
The attack came just hours after a milestone in the hardworking mom’s life. She was returning home after graduating from a course she was taking in the Bronx to become a home health aide when her ex struck.
“She wanted to work. She wanted to move forward," her father Modesto Acosta, 57, said in Spanish, standing by the hospital bed of his barely conscious daughter Sunday. “We don’t know how long she’s going to have to stay here . . . She almost lost her life.”
Lisbeth Acosta was attacked with a machete. Her ex Hector Delacruz is charged with attempted murder. (Obtained by IBEX News)
Acosta’s relationship with Delacruz was troubled almost from the time they met three-and-a-half years ago, her family said.
“She said she didn’t want to be alone because he always hit her,” her father said.
A year into the relationship they had a baby together.
“She thought maybe because they had a daughter things would get better,” her dad said. “But after a while she couldn’t take it anymore,”
The family says Acosta filed an order of protection in a Paterson, N.J. court about three months ago and that Delacruz was arrested multiple times during their relationship for domestic violence. Authorities could not immediately confirm that Sunday.
“They were separated because he mistreated her," Acosta’s aunt said.
Acosta bravely moved out of the Paterson home she shared with Delacruz about two months ago, resettling in the Bronx and taking their 2-year-old daughter Kayla with her. Acosta’s grandmother soon came to live with her.
Little Kayla is now staying with her grandmother, unaware of her mother’s misfortune.
"She’s too young, she doesn’t know,” the victim’s dad said.
Delacruz was arrested shortly after the attack and charged with attempted murder, assault and weapons possession. He is awaiting arraignment while hospitalized at North Central Bronx Hospital. Police couldn’t say Sunday what he had been hospitalized for.
Delacruz works as a for-hire driver, the victim’s family said.
The victim’s family will continue to rally around Acosta, who will need surgery on her arm soon. She needed dozens of stitches just to close the wound to her hand. She’s likely to bear scars for the rest of her life, the family said.
“We love her a lot," Acosta’s aunt said. “We’re confiding in God that there will be justice. Because the divine justice doesn’t fail."
