35-year-old Vanessa Acevedo was a single mother and a first-time business owner - and her murder on the weekend in a small time robbery has stunned the Ladyville and Sand Hill communities - and again left us all shaking our heads.
And, even more distressing is that the man accused of killing her is really just a boy - a 17 year old minor. And he killed Acevedo - when reports say she was not even trying to resist the robber.
It's an especially senseless and saddening murder and Daniel Ortiz has the details:
Tatiana Acevedo - Cousin of the Deceased
"It was her dream from a long time ago to open her own business, and she had finally gotten the chance to open her little cocktail bar."
35-year-old Vanessa Acevedo's dream and her life were unfairly taken from her this weekend when a gunman tried to rob her business place, Cocktail Bar & Lounge.
Sometime around the midnight hour on Friday night, she was getting ready to close up for the end of the workday when a young man entered the compound. He was armed with a firearm, and he reportedly demanded that she hand over whatever cash was in her possession at that moment.
Multiple accounts to our newsroom are that she was cooperating with the robber, who - for unknown reasons at this time - shot her once in the chest. That injury was fatal.
Her family is especially hurt because she reportedly didn't resist the armed assailant. Yet, her life wasn't spared.
Tatiana Acevedo - Cousin of the Deceased
"The way we were told [about] it, she had just closed down the place, and then she was going to her house. The person just slipped through by the side gate and told her to give them the money. She was handing the purse to the person who stepped closer to get the purse and just shot her."
"As [soon] they asked her for for for her money, she just hurried to give them her purse because she knew that the purse didn't have all of her money, some just some change. So she just gave the purse, and still…"
Daniel Ortiz
"Maybe that killer went there specifically to harm your loved one. Do you think that that is believable? Is that plausible or …?"
Tatiana Acevedo
"That's the way it sounds. That's the way it seems because the young man, somebody sent that young man to do that because they were giving him the purse. Why? Why shoot her?"
The person who the assailant shot was a single mother, an aspiring entrepreneur, and a family-oriented individual who spent her time in the company of loved ones and close friends.
Tatiana Acevedo - Cousin of the Deceased
"She was always working at different places, at restaurants, different business places. She was - She work as anything to maintain her daughter."
"We always saw her often when we had, like family events or a birthday, she was always there. She was the life of the party. She was the one that started dancing, bringing the games, jumping, and everything. And, you know, she was always happy."
"She will be there missed by all of us, the whole family. All of us are really devastated by the news and everything. It's very hard because when someone just takes a person's life away, it's not expected. And we can't see she's in a better place. You know, she was not suffering here."
"When we first heard about it, it's like it was unbelievable. And, you know, I still can't feel like I can't take it because one day she was very good and everything, and then now she's gone."
We note that Vanessa Acevedo's business place is next to Bredda O's Pizza - where, in a jarring coincidence - the owner, 38-year-old Oren Velasquez, was also shot and killed in a robbery attempt at his pizza parlor in 2020.
