NEW YORK — The group of teenagers huddled in a cold wind on East 185th Street in the Bronx on Monday, carrying with them the same items they had planned the day before to bring: shiny balloons saying “It’s Your Birthday” and “Feliz Cumpleaños,” and a chocolate cake.
They were prepared to commemorate their friend Alanche Del Orbe’s 15th birthday, and decided to still do so, even amid the shocking and tragic news: Fewer than 20 hours earlier, Alanche had been found dead in his home, four stories above where the teenagers gathered.
“He was only 14, he was only a little kid,” said an anguished friend, Randy Marquez, 15.
The police report of his death suggested an unthinkable horror. Alanche was found with severe head trauma, most likely beaten. His mother, Marisol Ortiz, 51, was found the same way. After a family member reportedly found them and called 911 at 3:38 p.m. Sunday, emergency medical personnel pronounced them dead at the scene.
A neighbor upstairs, Eskarliny Santiago, 20, heard the reaction when the bodies were found.
“It was a scream, really loud, like when you’re getting hit,” she said.
Police officials said a man who was a person of interest and wanted for questioning in the case, Hector Cruz, was struck and killed by a train early Sunday at the Hartsdale Metro-North Railroad station in Westchester.
The sparse and grisly details released by the police stood in jarring contrast to the color photos of Alanche that his friends taped onto the building’s exterior. In one, he mugs in a fake mustache while wearing his jacket from his high school, the Academy for Language and Technology. In another, he strikes a pose in dress clothes. In another, he hikes through a verdant forest with a backpack.
“He was just a happy kid, he liked to joke and make everybody laugh,” Zaimari Trinidad, 15, said. “It’s so hard what happened to him.”
As the friends spoke, two police officers escorted a pair of tearful women into the apartment; the women identified themselves as family members but declined to comment. The building superintendent, Jose Feliciano, 69, said Alanche and his mother had moved from the Dominican Republic around four years ago. He called them “good people” with whom he never had an issue.
One of Alanche’s closest friends, Diannibel Cedano, 15, said he had confided to her last week that there was trouble over a new man his mother began seeing. She recalled that he had told her as he accompanied her home in a cab; he was making sure she arrived safe before walking to his own home.
“His mom got a boyfriend and he had to leave to his sister’s house,” Diannibel said. “It’s sad because he felt his mother never cared about him.”
Police officials would not confirm multiple news media reports that they were looking for the mother’s boyfriend, who was said to be an ex-convict.
Outside the building’s front door, the regiments of red and white votive candles grew as 10 “Happy Birthday” balloons clattered in the stiff wind.
Friends remembered Alanche as a baseball nut whose hero was Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. He dreamed of being just like him one day. They recalled his love of playing baseball, through a group called Grand Slam Foundation, or simpler everyday things like riding his bicycle, dancing and eating Dominican food. He always liked to joke and make sure everyone around him had a good time, they said.
Bianell De La Cruz, a teacher at the Academy for Language and Technology, said he immediately dropped everything when a student emailed him the news, rushing to the birthday party turned memorial with a school shirt for the students to sign in tribute. He said Alanche won a school award last year for student improvement.
“He was a good student, a good kid; we’re all going to miss him,” he said.
Another friend, Randy Marquez, said he had looked forward to telling Alanche on Monday that for his birthday his buddies were taking him to a Yankees game this spring.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said, staring at the candles blowing out. “Not at all.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.