NEW YORK (AP) – The decayed bodies of a woman, her two children and her abusive boyfriend were found inside an apartment on Sunday, neighbors said.

The bodies were discovered around 8:15 a.m. inside Apartment 6E at 81 N. Portland Ave. in the Walt Whitman houses in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, police said. Authorities had been called to the scene because of reports of an odor and ended up breaking down the door and finding the bodies, police said.

The victims were Hector Viera, 34, Haydee Soto, 42, John Borday, 15, and Valerie Rivera, 13, police said. No causes of death were immediately released.

Neighbors said Viera was abusive and had lived with the family for a year or two.

“He was withdrawn, angry,” said Nicole Martin, a sixth-floor neighbor of the victims. “He wasn’t approachable.”

“I just heard the kids screaming sometimes when they used to fight,” said Victor Vasquez, who said he had been a close friend of the dead woman.

Vasquez said he had last seen the victims around Thanksgiving. He said he had knocked on their door during the last few days but received no answer and assumed they were out of town.

Janice Brown said, “They were a very quiet family and didn’t bother nobody.”

She said she had first smelled the odor on Saturday. “It smelled like somebody had defecated in the hallway,” she said.

AP-ES-12-10-06 1754EST


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