On the night of February 13, 1993, 26-year-old Maria Santana was fatally shot twice in the head inside her Bronx apartment on Prospect Avenue. The attack occurred during a forced entry by a group of armed men; Maria’s mother Julia Santana and her brother Edwin Santiago were also killed, along with two other people who were in the apartment that night. Maria had been employed at a local factory and was apparently wearing her coat and holding her keys as if she had just arrived.

The killings were tied to a months‑long neighborhood feud that began when Edwin Santiago allegedly slapped the wife of a man named Anthony Casellas. While Casellas was in custody on unrelated charges, investigators say he plotted retaliation. Authorities later arrested Anthony Casellas and four others — Luis Ramos, Eliot Lopez, Luis Romero, and Edgardo Rosado — in connection with the attack. Reports say the defendants were convicted and received life sentences.

The families also sued the apartment building’s management, arguing inadequate security contributed to the massacre; a multi‑million dollar judgment was reported in their favor. Does anyone have memories of the Prospect Avenue neighborhood or knew the Santana family who could add context to what led up to this?