THE HOUSE on Solly Avenue was decorated for Halloween, wooden pumpkins and scarecrows dotting its front lawn.
But the true horror lay inside: a young family abruptly destroyed by a grisly, heartrending crime.
Officers were called just after noon to the tidy duplex near Ferndale Street in Fox Chase, police said.
In its second-floor apartment, they found a woman, identified by police sources as Bonnie Eckstrom, 25, stabbed in her face and neck. She was pronounced dead at the scene, where police found the alleged murder weapon, which authorities did not specify.
Her live-in boyfriend, whom sources identified as Joshua Nieto, was still inside. He was arrested on the spot, accused of slaying Eckstrom in the heat of a domestic argument.
But the couple weren't alone at the time of the brutal assault. Their toddler daughter, Quinn, was apparently so close to them that her clothing and hands were covered in blood, according to a police source.
An investigator later said it was the first time he could recall swabbing a baby for a blood sample.
A woman named Anna, who lives a few doors away, watched officers bring Nieto out in handcuffs. They were seething, distraught at the condition of the apartment, she said.
Moments later, Anna watched an officer carry little Quinn out of the house. The child was clutching a Minnie Mouse doll.
"I could've cried my eyes out, seeing her like that," said Anna, who didn't want to provide her last name. "She is so precious."
Anna was one of many neighbors who stood on their stoops yesterday afternoon watching cops move in and out of the house.
All expressed shock at the violence that had descended on their normally quiet block.
None more so than Tony, who lives in the apartment underneath the couple.
A dental appointment had cut into Tony's day, and he'd made a quick detour home before heading back to work.
As he walked up his front steps, he greeted Eckstrom, who sat in the midday sun.
He may have been the last person to see her alive.
Not long after, Tony got a call from his wife. She told him that "Bonnie and Josh had gotten into a fight," he said, that she had heard them yelling.
A second call, from Tony's son, revealed that Eckstrom had died during the argument.
"It's just terrible," said Tony, who also didn't want to give his last name. "You never expect something like this."
He couldn't say for certain how long the couple had lived above him - they moved in when Eckstrom was pregnant, he said, and he estimated that Quinn is about 14 months old.
They were quiet and respectful, he said. Nieto, a guitar instructor, often played music but never "kept us up at night," Tony said.
As Tony spoke with the Daily News yesterday, members of Eckstrom's family stood nearby, awash in grief. Some sobbed openly; others embraced.
Earlier in the day, Eckstrom's sister had visited the house to identify the body. Her wails could be heard throughout the block.
Later, she sat on the curb and screamed, "He killed my only sister!" and "I kept trying to get her to move!" according to Cara, a neighbor whose Chihuahua-shih-tzu mix, Noodle, loves to play with Quinn.
"I can't believe it; he seemed like such a sweet, nice guy," Cara said of Nieto, whom she called a "doting dad" who always let his daughter play with her dog.
Cara had heard the sirens yesterday, but didn't think anything of it. Then a neighbor texted her, telling her that she'd "better come outside."
When she saw the "white shirts" - police supervisors - she knew it was serious, she said.
"People yell and argue all the time," said Cara, who, like her neighbors, didn't want to provide her last name.
"Now I know you never can tell what's going on inside someone's home."
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20...VPclEtI7pZj.99
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