A Long Island desperate housewife who hated the burbs and longed for Brooklyn strangled her husband in the million-dollar dream home that they had just bought and renovated for her, cops and neighbors said yesterday.
Michael Forbes, 50, was murdered in his split-level waterfront home in tony South Merrick.
Cops said his wife of two months, Kelly Forbes, 29, wrapped an orange electrical cord around his neck and strangled him early Wednesday.
Her daughter from a previous relationship, Kadeshja, 7, was sleeping in another bedroom at the time, police said.
Relatives said he purchased the property a seven-room house on a picturesque saltwater marsh with a two-car garage and an in-ground pool in August.
He married Kelly Chadee in September and they moved in together shortly after that.
I just went to the wedding. It was a very large wedding, a nice wedding, said his cousin, Yvette Dudley.
Pointing at the meticulously landscaped new home now surrounded by yellow police tape she added, This is what he always wanted. Hes been searching for a home for years and years. This is his dream.
Her cousin was planning on teaching his wifes child how to swim, she recalled.
Forbes who owned the Heads Up Barbershop on Nevins Street and worked in real estate told her he was going
to stop and relax for a change.
He talked about the boat he was going to buy, said Dudley.
He told me, Im going to stop working so hard and just enjoy life.
Holding back tears, she said the family was supposed to gather at her house for a holiday dinner yesterday.
This house was a gift to his wife, she said. Shes crazy.
One neighbor in the leafy hamlet said that Michael Forbes told her his wife wasnt happy outside the big city bustle.
She doesnt like it here, the neighbor quoted Forbes as saying. She wants to move back to Brooklyn.
The neighbor who didnt want to be identified shook her head and looked around the high-priced block with peaceful waterfront views.
Whats not to like? she asked.
Now the city-loving gal is cooling her heels in a Nassau County jail.
Kelly Forbes was charged with second-degree murder yesterday in Nassau County First District Court in Hempstead.
Prosecutor Michael Canty asked the judge to hold her without bail because of the seriousness of the charges.
She strangled him to death, he said. She made incriminating statements to the police to that effect.
As she was being led into the homicide squad car, a reporter asked, What are you going to tell your daughter?
The handcuffed mom burst into tears.
Meanwhile, Michael Forbes family is struggling to make sense of the tragedy.
Cecil Dudley, Michaels uncle, said, He was a good man, Its a shock to everybody.
Cops said they are unsure what the motive was for the killing. Kelly Forbes called 911 at about 9 a.m. Wednesday. When rescuers arrived, they found Michael Forbes in the hallway just off the master bedroom unconscious.
He was declared dead shortly after in the hospital.
There appeared to be some signs of a minor struggle, said Detective Sgt. Gregory Quinn.
They are unsure how the 5-foot-5, 150-pound woman overpowered her husband, who weighs 250 pounds and is 6-foot-1, he said.
They are awaiting the results of the toxicology report to see if any drugs were involved, he said. Michael Forbes did tell one neighbor that he had recently suffered his second stroke.