Police say a 74-year-old woman was killed and her husband was beaten early this morning in their second-floor apartment in the 6700 block of Castor Avenue. A man has been taken into custody for questioning. Neighbors say the couple, known as Lew and Judy, often strolled around the streets together in the morning.
An elderly Northeast Philadelphia woman was killed and her husband was beaten early this morning by an intruder who broke into their Castor Gardens apartment, police said.
The 74-year-old woman was found dead inside the second-floor apartment in the 6700 block of Castor Avenue. Police, who answered a radio call at 2:50 a.m., were met at the door by the woman’s 75-year-old husband, who told them his wife was inside.
Neither was identified by police.
Police said the intruder entered the apartment, located above a clothing store, through a rear second-floor window by pushing in the screen of a rear window.
A man police did not identify was taken into custody for questioning.
The husband was taken to Aria Health’s Torresdale campus for treatment of his injuries.
Although police would not release the victims’ names, neighbors said they knew the victims as Lew and Judy.
The husband was especially well-known on the block of ground-floor businesses with second-floor apartments.
“We called him the mayor,” said the Rev. Robert Bey, who lives nearby on Knorr Street.
“Everybody likes him,” said a Mr. Wong, who said he was the couple’s landlord but declined to give his first name.
“Everybody knows everybody around here,” Bey said, adding the couple’s morning walks together were familiar neighborhood sights.
“We are deeply saddened,” Bey said.
Wong said he believes the couple had lived in the second-floor apartment for 30 years.
Alan Wise, another Knorr Street neighbor, on Monday morning looked up at the torn screen of the victims’ residence and said he knew that was a bedroom.
Wise and Bey said the neighborhood has had some muggings and burglaries, but nothing like a violent home invasion.
“This is the first violent break-in,” Wise said.
Although detectives are questioning a man, he had not been arrested as on late Monday morning.
Police said cause of death of the elderly woman has not been determined.••
