Man charged in murder of missing Queens mother

Rogelio Lozano-Garita, 26, has been charged with the murder of 35-year-old Seraphina Pereira after her body was discovered in a shallow grave at Rockaway Community Park in Edgemere, Queens.

Investigators report that Pereira went missing from her Beach 54th Street home on October 19. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Lozano-Garita pushing a wagon containing large garbage bags out of Pereira’s apartment building approximately two hours after the pair were last seen together. The footage further shows him dragging the wagon into a wooded area near Beach 58th Street and Almeda Avenue.

Pereira’s body was found on the night of October 24, wrapped in a blanket and partially decomposed. The city medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, noting that she had sustained gunshot wounds to the head, neck, and torso. Lozano-Garita, who is the father of Pereira’s youngest child, faces charges including murder, criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse, and tampering with physical evidence.