In the quiet community of Woodbridge, New Jersey, a young woman's search for a new beginning was tragically cut short. Stephanie Barrios, a 29-year-old female, had recently relocated to the area with her six-year-old son, seeking refuge from a troubled and abusive relationship. She had moved in with relatives, hoping to build a safer and more stable life for her small family.
This sense of newfound security was shattered on the evening of November 18, 2013, in what would be the final, violent act of a relationship she had tried to escape.
That Monday night, Stephanie was sitting in a 2007 Mercedes parked outside her new home on Strawberry Hill Avenue. Her ex-boyfriend, 46-year-old Luis Rosado of Brooklyn, New York, had tracked her down. The couple had been together for a number of years and had lived together in Brooklyn before their separation two years prior. Rosado, who was the registered owner of the vehicle, confronted Barrios. The encounter escalated with horrific speed, ending when Rosado shot and killed her.
Following the fatal shooting of Barrios, Luis Rosado then turned one of the two handguns found at the scene on himself. His body was discovered in the street near the parked car, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The investigation that followed confirmed the events as a murder-suicide, a tragic conclusion to a history of domestic violence. The authorities' investigation into the grim events of that night concluded with the identification of Rosado as the sole perpetrator, leaving a family and a community to mourn the loss of a young mother who had fought to protect herself and her child.
