After a week of playing ‘cat and mouse’ with cops, a Waterbury-LaSalle man was finally arrested in connection to the death of his wife.
Just hours after Tina Adovasio, 40, was laid to rest on Tuesday, March 22, her husband Eddy Coello, of 1166 Edison Avenue, was charged with 2nd degree murder by the Bronx District Attorney.
As he was being walked out of the 45th Precinct, family friend Tom Herrera shouted out at Coello, 38, who remained stoic.
“I just want the family to know that I am with them and that I feel their pain,” said Herrera, who is close friends with Adovasio’s brother. “I feel bad about this whole situation, it is a terrible situation, and you know what, it didn’t have to happen.
Adovasio’s body was found upstate by teenagers in a wooded area off of the Taconic State Parkway in Yorktown Heights on Wednesday, March 16. She was last seen on Friday, March 11 walking into her apartment with her five-year-old daughter.
“I hope the police have enough evidence to convict him so he does not get out of prison in ten years,” Herrera told reporters.
The district attorney’s office confirmed that Coello would be arraigned on murder charges on Wednesday, March 23, according to spokesman Stephen Reed.
Adovasio was initially reported missing by Coello, but he later stopped cooperating with officials and requested a lawyer when detectives asked to search his car, a police source said.
He was soon named “a person of interest,” even making a voluntary appearance at the 45th Precinct on Thursday, March 17, but refused to give a DNA sample and left, according to sources.
His attorney Renee Hill, said that Coello was distraught over the death of his wife and would be available for questioning and that she would bring him in if the police requested his presence.
Adovasio was the mother of a daughter with Coello, Mia 5, and three older children Joseph, 16, Lexi, 15, and Michael, 11, from a previous marriage.
Son Michael Adovasio’s fifth grade teachers at Villa Maria Academy organized a birthday party for the youngster who turned 11 shortly after his mother’s death, in an attempt to raise his spirits, and the school community plans to do more to help the family through the tragedy, said teacher Michael Bernard.
Coello is an ex-housing NYPD officer who resigned from the force after four years on the job in 2000 amid allegations of domestic violence with a former girlfriend.
He had also been arrested for attacking Adovasio in February 2006 and February 2007, and Adovasio had recently filed a restraining order against him and was seeking a divorce, according to published reports.
At the time of his arrest, Coello was staying in a relative’s home at 2079 Wallace Avenue, according to police source.
Adovasio was waked at the Yorktown Funeral Home in Shrub Oak, New York, and her funeral service was held at St. John The Evangelist Church in Mahopac, New York.
