Conn. man Pedro Grajalez killed girlfriend, drove body to police: cops

A Connecticut man walked into a police station and showed officers photos of his bloodied girlfriend in his car outside – saying he killed her because she had an affair, officials said.

Pedro Grajalez, 52, presented the gruesome images at the front desk of the Hartford Police Department about 3:20 p.m. Sunday, Connecticut Insider reported.

He said “he had just stabbed his girlfriend, and that she was in a vehicle parked in front of the police department,” police Lt. Aaron Boisvert said in a statement.

Officers rushed to the parking lot, where they found 57-year-old Nilda Rivera, of New Britain, unresponsive with “multiple injuries.”

They attempted lifesaving measures until paramedics rushed her to Saint Francis Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Boisvert said.

Investigators said she was stabbed more than 25 times all over her body — including her chest, head, face and arms – inside the vehicle when they were in a parking lot on Murphy Road.

Rivera was sitting in the front seat and a knife was in the center console.

Grajalez, who had been dating Rivera since July 2022, recently found out she was having an affair and had allegedly been planning to kill her for several days, NBC Connecticut reported.

He told investigators he hid the knife in his pants pocket and drove her to a McDonald’s for a bite, after which he drove her to the secluded lot and stabbed her.

He said he waited for Rivera to die before driving to the police department, according to a warrant cited by the outlet.

Grajalez also sent a photo of the bloodied woman to her “new boyfriend,” according to the warrant.

He has been charged with murder and his bond was set at $3 million.

Meanwhile, Rivera’s daughters have spoken out about their loss, saying they had a strange feeling about Grajalez since he began dating their mother, a former nursing assistant.

“My mom was just looking for love,” Daniella Valle told Fox 61. “She was a mother. She was a grandmother. She was a friend.”

The other daughter, Yaitza Casanova, said Grajalez “was very jealous. He would look in her phone and delete stuff and go on her social media and delete people.”

Their mom and Grajalez were in an on-again, off-again relationship after meeting on social media, according to the outlet.

“He talked about how he would never hurt my mother. But that’s exactly what he did,” Valle said. “I wake up every day just hoping it’s a nightmare.”

Casanova added: “I hope that they do to him what he did to my mother and he suffers slowly.”