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A pregnant Brooklyn mother of four was butchered in her apartment yesterday — a day before her wedding and two weeks ahead of her due date, cops and friends said.
Vindalee Smith, 38, was found by her landlord at 9:30 a.m. in the East Flatbush basement unit with stab wounds to the neck.
Her devastated oldest daughter, Monique, arrived a short time later screaming, “Where is my mom? I want to see my mom!”
“Monique fell on the floor and couldn’t get up,” said a friend from Smith’s church, whose members had been set to throw her a shower last night. “It was so sad. She came for a baby shower and a wedding — but now she has to stay for a funeral.”
Vindalee fiancé, who was not identified, was interviewed by police last night, but was not considered a suspect, sources said.
Smith had recently received death threats from a former neighbor with whom she had an ongoing “misunderstanding” at a previous address, said her pastor, Ferron Francis, of New Dimension Church.
“She had some issues with some people in the past who had actually threatened to kill her and her entire family,” he said.
She told the pastor she had received new threats two weeks ago. It’s unclear if she reported it to police.
Smith worked as a home health-care aide. She was a devout Seventh-day Adventist and a fixture at New Dimension — where she was would have been married today.
“When the church heard of her death, it was unbelievable — everyone was crying, everyone was at a loss,” said Sybil Samuel, 58, who went to Smith’s home with several members of the congregation.
“Whoever did this must be the devil. He took the lives of not one, but two people.”
Another church member, who asked not to be identified, said, “Everyone is hurting within the community. Vindalee was a good Christian — she didn’t deserve this. Whoever did this was a savage, a monster!”
Smith had two teenage boys and two girls in their 20s. She had been living in the apartment for a few weeks while her sons stayed with family friends.
“She was supposed to move out after this weekend, after being married, to bring the family together,” Francis said.
“She was a jovial person. She was a very dedicated and caring person. She was a mother and father to her children and was very protective and supportive of them.”
Meanwhile, a vigil was held yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of another Brooklyn mother, Zurana Horton, 34, who died defending a group of children from a gang-banger’s bullets just two miles from where Smith was killed yesterday.
“We all have to graduate and go to our prom knowing our mother won’t be there,” said Horton’s son Tyquran, 17.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger and Larry Celona