Brianna Rios, 24, returned to the Bronx building where Nathaly Ramirez, 23, was killed to pray and light a candle for the mother she never got to know.
Rios told The Post outside the apartment complex on Wednesday that Ramirez had reached out to her on Instagram months earlier, offering comfort after Rios posted about her own domestic violence ordeal. “She reached out to me on Instagram when I posted my own domestic violence situation,” Rios said. “I had two black eyes, and my nose was broken, and she reached out saying that everything was gonna be okay and I was gonna heal, and if anything happens, if I wanted to reach out to her to feel free to reach out to her and I’d never been able to reach out to her.”
The message arrived on June 16, shortly before noon, buried in a flood of responses to Rios’s viral video showing her battered face. “Feel better soon gorgeous,” Ramirez wrote. “God is good you’re recover soon! Take it easy and reach out if anything,” followed by a heart. Rios said she never saw it at the time because her post was going viral and she couldn’t respond to everyone. “I wasn’t able to be a good friend to her,” she said through tears.
Rios only discovered the message this week, after learning what had happened to its sender. “I looked up her name when I found out. She was thrown off the f—-ing roof,” she said Wednesday.
Ramirez died after being thrown from her 15-story balcony while clutching her 8-month-old daughter, who survived the fall and remains hospitalized in critical condition at Jacobi Hospital Medical Center. The baby’s father, Angel Carrasco, 31, fled the scene but was arrested Wednesday by US Marshals and NYPD officers. He is facing murder and attempted murder charges.
Carrasco had been charged twice in January in domestic violence incidents involving Ramirez, sources said. This week, he brought her flowers in what was described as a failed attempt to reconcile before the fatal confrontation. He was led into court in handcuffs on Thursday, flashing what witnesses called a sinister grin.
Rios’s visit to the memorial coincided with the nation’s observance of domestic violence awareness month. She spoke about the broader crisis that connected the two women. “There’s so much women going through domestic violence, and it’s not fair, we’re not protected,” she said. “I just want to be here. I want to pray and light my candle.”
The June 16 attack on Rios had prompted her to post video of her injuries online with a stark warning to other women: “once a man puts his hands on you, get him unalived immediately.” The post drew hundreds of messages, including the one from Ramirez that would remain unseen for months.
Rios now carries the weight of that missed connection. “I didn’t see the message because my post was going viral at the time. I wasn’t able to respond to her,” she said. The two women, strangers bound by shared trauma, never spoke beyond that single exchange.
Carrasco remains in custody as the case against him proceeds.