A man accused of murdering his wife on Christmas Eve made his first court appearance in Saint John, N.B., Friday morning.
Diego Alejandro Osorio Angarita, 26, was arrested on Thursday. He has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Nicsy Arboleda Rodriguez.
Angarita was remanded into custody and is due back in court on Jan. 24.
Emergency crews found Rodriguez lying unconscious on the road in the 600 block of Lancaster Avenue around 4:10 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2024.
Police say she had sustained serious injuries. She received emergency first aid at the scene and was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Couple worked at Casa Latina restaurant
The owner of Casa Latina, a restaurant in Saint John, says the couple had been working at the eatery for seven months. Rodrigo Rea describes them as good, hard-working people who didn’t appear to have any issues with one another.
Rea says the couple lived in Saint John but their families are in Colombia.
He says he found out about Rodriguez’s death on Christmas Eve morning, when he received a call from her husband.
GoFundMe pages created
Wanting to help, Rea says he created a GoFundMe page to help bring Rodriguez’s body home to Colombia. However, he didn’t want to have the money go through him, so he created it under her husband’s name – before he knew Angarita was allegedly involved in her death.
“Nicsy Ximena was a dear member of our Latin community in Saint John, a loving wife, a best friend, a terrific cook with a very long road ahead,” says the GoFundMe page.
“She loved and supported her family, loved her dog and her friends.”
The page, which was created last week, states Rodriguez “was in a horrific incident” and “she did not survive her injuries.”
As of 1:30 p.m. Friday, $5,922 had been raised, but later that day it was no longer available.
Someone claiming to be a friend of the deceased set up a second GoFundMe page that raised nearly $1,500 before it too was taken down.
Investigators are asking any witnesses or anyone with video footage of the incident to contact the Saint John Police Force at 1-506-648-3333 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Avery MacRae
