Boyfriend accused of gunning down missing NYC mom, dumping body in shallow grave

The boyfriend of the Queens mom who was found shot dead in a shallow grave over the weekend was charged with her murder and dumping her body, cops said Tuesday.

Rogelio Lozano-Garita, 26, was allegedly caught on video pushing a wagon containing large garbage bags out of 35-year-old Seraphina Pereira’s Rockaway Beach apartment building, law enforcement sources said.

Pereira was reported missing on Oct. 19, and was last seen alive that day with Lozano-Garita at her Beach 54th Street home, the sources said.

Seraphina Pereira vanished from her home Oct. 19, days before her body was found in a shallow grave at Rockaway Community Park in Edgemere. Facebook/Seraphina Pereira
Investigators believe Pereira may have known her killer, sources said. DCPI

Her decomposing body was found about a half mile away on the night of Oct. 24, wrapped in a blanket in a pit at Rockaway Community Park in Edgemere, police said.

Pereira had suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck and torso, and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the city medical examiner’s office.

Footage obtained by investigators showed the now-arrested beau pushing the garbage bag-laden wagon out of the mom’s building about two hours after the pair were sighted together, sources said.

Later on, the video showed him dragging the wagon into the wooded area at Beach 58th Street and Almeda Avenue, according to the sources.

Pereira was shot in the head, neck and torso, and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the city medical examiner’s office. Diego Luzuriaga / FreedomNewsTV
Police are continuing to investigate and no arrests have been made in connection to Pereira’s death. Diego Luzuriaga / FreedomNewsTV

Lozano-Garita was arrested Monday and charged with murder and other raps including criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence, cops said.

Sources said he is the father of Pereira’s youngest child. His arraignment was pending Tuesday.

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