Man accused of killing 3 family members in Queens home: sources
SOUTH JAMAICA, Queens (PIX11) --- A man who was nabbed in Maine is accused of killing three family members in a Queens home, including a woman he had been dating, according to police and law enforcement sources.
Travis Blake, 29, was officially charged Friday with three counts of manslaughter in the slayings of his former girlfriend, Karlene Barnett, 55, and her son, Dervon Brightly, 26, sources said. The third victim, Vashawnna Malcolm, 22, was a relative of Barnett and Brightly, but the exact relationship is unknown, sources said.
On June 24, authorities found Barnett and Brightly in the basement of the South Jamaica home they shared with Blake on 155th Street near 116th Road, officials said. Malcolm was found on a bed in the second-floor bedroom with her hands bound and taped over her mouth, police said.
Investigators believed that the bodies had been in the home for days before their discovery, according to authorities.
Blake was taken into custody by members of the Regional Fugitive Task Force and local law enforcement in Maine in early July and was extradited to New York, officials said.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/