A woman was shot and killed in the Wakefield section of the Bronx early Tuesday, and police are now searching for the gunman who cut her life short. Investigators have identified the victim as 39-year-old Julia Anderson, who was found with gunshot wounds after officers responded to reports of gunfire, in a case that has left a residential Bronx neighborhood shaken and detectives scrambling for answers.
The shooting unfolded on Murdoch Avenue near its corner with Nereid Avenue, close to Mount St. Michael Academy, where Anderson was gunned down as she sat in her vehicle. The violence turned a quiet stretch of the Wakefield neighborhood into an active crime scene, with officers cordoning off the area as the crime scene unit began the painstaking work of gathering evidence and canvassing for witnesses.
Emergency medical crews responded quickly in an effort to save her. Paramedics rushed the wounded woman to Jacoby Hospital, but despite their efforts she could not be saved and was pronounced dead, making the case a homicide investigation for detectives working the scene. According to what doctors later told her grieving family, she had been hit by three bullets, including one that went straight into her heart and another that struck her arm.
In the hours after the shooting, the person responsible managed to get away before officers arrived, and the case initially unfolded as a search for a fleeing gunman. A newly obtained piece of surveillance video gave the investigation a significant new dimension, capturing what sounded like an argument in the moments before the gunfire and leading detectives to believe that Anderson knew her killer rather than being the victim of a random attack. That line of inquiry would prove crucial, pointing investigators toward someone close to her.
A clearer picture has emerged of how the shooting unfolded. Police believe Anderson was sitting in the driver's seat of her Jeep Grand Cherokee when she was shot through the front passenger-side window, and that she managed to try to get out of the vehicle before collapsing into the street. Investigators found the car's passenger-side window pierced by gunfire and blood on the roadway, laying out evidence markers as they worked to reconstruct the attack.
For the victim's family, the loss is devastating. Her sister shared a photograph of her and described her as a hard worker who worked with people who are handicapped, remembering a woman devoted to helping others. She was, her sister said, just one month shy of celebrating her 40th birthday when she was killed.
Days later, police announced an arrest that reframed the case as a killing within the family. Investigators identified the suspect as Anderson's uncle, 58-year-old Michael Foster of Mount Vernon, who was taken into custody and charged with murder and manslaughter, along with weapons counts. According to police, the killing grew out of an ongoing family dispute over the inheritance of a home, a bitter disagreement that authorities believe escalated into deadly violence against a woman her relatives remembered for a lifetime spent caring for others.