A suicidal Bronx man stabbed his wife to death, then set their bedroom on fire with their year-old daughter inside - killing the baby and himself, authorities said.

The crazed father, Vicente Cordero, 34, initially survived despite terrible burns, but died Wednesday night, police said.

Cordero and Kety Sanchez, 30, had separated after ongoing arguments. They clashed after her parents moved into the couple's small Fordham Heights flat, his friends said.

Still, the couple remained close and Cordero often stayed at her Morris Ave. apartment. But friends said Cordero was troubled over their relationship problems.

The fiery end began early Wednesday morning when Cordero went to a Bronx gas station. He bought a red gas can, filled it, then went to Sanchez's place, a police source said. Armed with a knife, he entered Sanchez's bedroom and locked the door behind him.

"I heard the parents fighting. They fought a lot," said Erick Carpio, a neighbor. "Then I heard a loud explosion."

Firefighters rushed through surging flames and found the little girl, Keity, facedown in her crib, a second police source said.

"She was a fantastic, beautiful little girl with blue eyes," the mother's cousin Rosely Rodriguez, 18, said of baby Keity.

The mom was found on the floor next to the bed. She had been stabbed three times in the chest, the source said.


The fire started in the bedroom of the family's fifth-floor apartment at 2275 Morris Ave.

Cordero, who worked in a dentist's office, was in critical condition at St. Barnabas Hospital on Wednesday before being moved to Westchester Medical Center, where he died. Police had charged him with two counts of second-degree murder, along with arson and other offenses.

Carpio, the neighbor, said he rushed into the hallway shortly before 8 a.m. and was met by the screams of the dying child's grandmother.

He said he rushed into the burning apartment. "Everything in there was black," he said. "It was like I was blind."

Carpio heard the baby's cries as he fought to get into the bedroom.

"I couldn't find her," he said. "There was a lot of fire. I had to break down the bedroom door."

Too much time had elapsed. The baby couldn't be saved.



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