The father of a New York City nurse killed in an apparent murder-suicide has described the chilling final conversation he had with her boyfriend.
Rudy Cantarini, a former police officer, spent 14 agonizing minutes on the phone Tuesday night as Juan Cornelio Diaz, 38, confronted his 37-year-old daughter, Andrea, inside their Bronx apartment.
During the call, he said he heard what appeared to be three gunshots, followed by his daughter’s screams.
Diaz then told him, “She’s gone, Rudy,” the grieving father recounted to the New York Post.
Police arrived shortly after 9 p.m. and found Andrea, a nurse at New York City’s St. Barnabas Hospital, dead from a gunshot wound to the head in the couple’s bedroom.
Diaz, a Customs and Border Protection agent stationed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, was found nearby with a fatal gunshot wound to the head, according to the New York City Police Department.
Investigators are treating the deaths as a murder-suicide linked to a domestic dispute. Andrea’s father said she had planned to end the relationship, adding, “He couldn’t handle it. He was a coward.”
“I was on the phone with her for 14 minutes while he was holding a gun to her head,” Rudy previously told the New York Daily News.
“I was begging for her life. And he ended up taking her life.”
Former police officer Rudy Cantarini spent 14 terrifying minutes on the phone as his 37-year-old daughter, Andrea, was shot by her federal agent boyfriend. Source: Facebook
Andrea Cantarini and her boyfriend, Juan Cornelio Diaz, 38, were found dead from gunshot wounds to the head inside their Bronx apartment. Source: Instagram
Cantarini said his daughter called him from the apartment at 8:47 p.m. and warned, “He’s going to kill me and he’s got a gun to my head.”
“The two of us tried and begged him to let her go. He simply wouldn’t listen.”
He recalled pleading with Diaz: “Please do not, do not kill her, Juan. It’s not too late, Juan. Just let her go.”
“And he killed her. And then he committed suicide.”
“I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” he said, describing Andrea as “the apple of my eye.”
The grieving father said Andrea “was a beautiful woman inside and out” with “all kinds of friends.” He added, “She was a great mother, a great mother. She was a beautiful kid, family-oriented and domesticated.”
“Her mother and I raised her to be a responsible adult,” he said.
Andrea and Diaz had a six-year-old daughter together, while Diaz also had a son from a previous relationship.
Andrea Cantarini, a nurse at St. Barnabas Hospital, had planned to end her relationship with Diaz, her father said.
Cantarini’s father called her the apple of his eye and said she had many friends. Source: Andrea Cantarini / Facebook
Social media photographs showed the couple embracing and appearing happy at various events. Andrea’s father said he had never known Diaz to have any history of mental health problems.
However, the couple’s downstairs neighbor, Kaela, said she and her roommate heard the pair engaged in a loud argument earlier that week.
“My roommate and I were talking about when we should call the police,” she told the Daily News.
“Then, as soon as we had that conversation, they stopped.”
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Cantarini’s father said that on Tuesday, Diaz shut the door on Andrea and waved a gun at her while their daughter remained outside the room, screaming and crying.
Andrea took the child to her father’s home in Poughkeepsie before going to work, even as relatives and friends urged her to leave Diaz.
“Her mother begged her not to return to the house,” her father said. “Two girls at work—her best friends—also begged her not to go back because what had happened that morning was irrational.”
Andrea Cantarini and Diaz had a six-year-old daughter together, while Diaz had a son from an earlier relationship. Source: Instagram
Cantarini’s father said he had no knowledge of any mental health issues involving Diaz before the shooting.
He acknowledged that he did not know precisely what had occurred during the morning confrontation. “I wish I did, because I would have called the police,” he told the Post.
“You’re waving a gun at my daughter—that’s far beyond normal,” he said.
Hours later, when Andrea returned to the apartment she shared with Diaz to collect clothing, her father said the agent was “waiting for her in ambush.”
Soon afterward, Kaela said she and her roommate heard gunshots.
At first, they believed the noise came from trucks backfiring. They then heard “the thuds of the bodies,” without realizing at the time what had caused them.
“It’s awful, upsetting and horrific,” Kaela said of the deaths.
“It’s a scary world.”
Residents of the couple’s former building said Diaz and Andrea had appeared to be a happy, successful family.
Neighbors said Diaz and Andrea had appeared to be a happy and successful family. Source: Instagram
“I always saw them together,” said Karla Evangelista, 29, who connected with Andrea because they were both young mothers.
Evangelista described Andrea as “very fit” and said she was often seen in gym clothes. “She was just amazing and so beautiful,” she said.
“I still don’t understand what led to this,” Evangelista said. “I was so shocked that I couldn’t sleep because they were not the people I would have expected this to happen to.”
The couple had recently moved into a larger home, she said, and seemed excited that their daughter would have her own bedroom. Diaz had even told Evangelista’s boyfriend, “We’re so happy because now she’s going to have her own room.”
Evangelista described Diaz as athletic, outgoing and friendly.
“He was a good-looking guy, always wearing nice clothes, always biking or running,” she said. “Sometimes he was outside with his daughter, playing in the parking lot. He would talk to us for the longest time—maybe an hour—just standing there, talking and catching up.”
“I’m telling you, I never thought this would happen.”
The investigation remains active. Police said they recovered the firearm believed to have been used in the murder-suicide.
A CBP spokesperson said the agency is cooperating with investigators.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US at 988. Online chat is also available at 988lifeline.org.
