A 66-year-old grandma was found stabbed to death inside her Brooklyn home this week — leaving neighbors shocked over the loss of the “matriarch” as her killer remains on the loose.
Claudette Jones — described by neighbors as either a practicing or retired nurse — was discovered around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday with multiple stab wounds inside the two-story cape home on East 56th Street near Avenue I in Flatbush, authorities said.
She was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS workers, cops said.
Jones lived on the second floor of the home with her daughter and three grandchildren – until 2022, when a fire forced her to move downstairs, neighbors told The Post.
She lived alone after the fire – until a young man, who appeared to be in his 20s, became a frequent presence at her home, often bringing pals around, locals said.
The two were fighting “a few weeks ago,” said neighbor Edsen Renaud, 56.
“I heard screams and she was crying for help,” Renaud said. “I looked out the window and couldn’t see anyone, but then I saw him and he was talking like, ‘I’m not going to jail tonight, I’m not going to jail tonight.’
“And then the police came and he came back and they allowed him to pick up some stuff. Then they had him leave.”
Renaud described Jones as a “calm lady” and “soft-spoken.”
“There’s nothing bad you could say about someone like that,” he said. “It’s crazy. I didn’t even know she was murdered when I spoke to a police officer that night. I thought maybe she’d just passed, but I’m finding out this morning that she was murdered.
“So this is a whole different ball game. This is not something I would expect. This is not her. She’s like a matriarch.”
Neighbor Eileen Williams said Jones was a long-time resident who “liked a lot of company, and that’s not good.”
“Most of them were young men,” Williams said.
Another neighbor, Linda Sica, 50, said Jones “kept mostly to herself” and “didn’t talk about her upbringing or private life at all.”
“She was very pleasant – lovely conversations, the short conversations we’ve had,” Sica said. “It’s mind boggling to hear … I’m thinking how? What happened? How could this possibly be?
“Things are rolling into my head – should I add more cameras to my house? Change the gate? We’ve never had such a crisis. I can’t make sense of it.”
No arrests have been made in the slaying and the NYPD has not identified a suspect.
