Vindalee Smith, 38, Brownsville NY

[Stan]

A woman who was eight months pregnant and due to be married over the weekend was found stabbed to death inside her Brooklyn home on Saturday morning, the police said.

The police found the victim, whom they identified as Vindalee Smith, 38, at about 9:30 a.m. lying on the floor of her house on 94th Street in Brownsville. The child that she was carrying also died, the police said.

Authorities said that detectives were trying to find Ms. Smith’s fiancé for questioning, but gave no further information about a possible suspect or motive.

All day on Saturday, friends and members of Ms. Smith’s church held tearful vigil outside the red brick town house where she lived. They hugged and prayed. At one point they opened prayer books and began singing the hymn “How Great Thou Art.”

Friends said Ms. Smith was an active member of the New Dimension Seventh-day Adventist Church on Winthrop Street, attending services every Saturday, the day Seventh-day Adventists reserve for prayer. She had four children, including two who were in college, friends said.

“When she met people on the street, she always told them about the Lord,” Edith Thomas, a fellow churchgoer, said.

Few knew much about Ms. Smith’s fiancé or the impending wedding, which was scheduled for Sunday. Mitzie Holstein, who said she was a friend, said that Ms. Smith met her fiancé, who she identified only as Andrew, a year ago. She said that he seemed quiet and possibly worked in construction.

Around 6:30 p.m., medical examiners brought Ms. Smith’s body out of her house. As the gurney carrying her body was wheeled to an awaiting van, about 100 people gathered outside began singing “Amazing Grace.”

The crowd then dispersed, with some walking up the street back to the church in tears.

Wendy Ruderman and Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting

S O U R C E

[Gail]

How touching and very tragic!

[olger]

Very sorry to hear this.