She had bruises, broken bones and a protruding skull. Her death has not been ruled a homicide

When Maria De Jesus was found outside her Bradenton apartment in the early morning hours of Labor Day, she was sprawled on the grass in only her underwear with visible bruises and broken bones. Her skull was exposed through a six-inch-long gash on her forehead and all she could tell deputies was, “I’m hurting, I’m hurting.”

It was after 4:30 a.m. on Labor Day when deputies and paramedics responded to the Centre Court apartment complex after receiving a 911 call from a neighbor. About 30 feet from De Jesus was a butcher knife.

De Jesus, 37, was rushed to Blake Medical Center where doctors determined that both of De Jesus’ wrists and arms were broken as was her pelvis. Because of her injuries, doctors had to put her in a medically-induced coma. As a result, she could not tell detectives what had happened to her.

Five days later, De Jesus died from her injuries. Her death is being investigated as a homicide but has not yet been ruled a homicide.

Meanwhile, her husband with whom she shared three children, Nelson Navarro, had left the state.

About two and a half hours before a neighbor finally called 911 on Labor Day, it sounded like the “world was coming down” in the couple’s upstairs apartment, another neighbor told deputies, according to police reports. Yet another neighbor was out walking his dog some time later and could hear someone yelling out in pain from the parking lot, but did nothing at his girlfriend’s urging not to get involved. He also witnessed Navarro “sweating profusely” as he packed his pick-up truck with garbage bags.

The neighbor who found De Jesus didn’t call 911 when she first spotted her on the grass at about 4 a.m., telling deputies she thought De Jesus was just drunk. But when she came back out to the grassy area out of concern and saw De Jesus’ condition, she finally did call.

On Sept. 11, Navarro was arrested in Whitfield County in northwestern Georgia after sheriff’s office detectives obtained a warrant charging him with grand theft. Navarro drove to a friend’s house after loading things into his truck that Monday morning and asked to borrow his vehicle so he could “go to work without being bothered” after an argument with his wife, his friend told detectives when he got pulled over in Navarro’s truck.

Navarro didn’t fight his extradition back to Florida to face charge the grand theft charge and on Oct. 2 was booked into the Manatee County jail. The sheriff’s office never officially named him a suspect in his wife’s death, but did call him a “person of interest” and were seeking to question him.

This story was originally published October 19, 2018 at 3:09 PM.