An apartment employee told investigators the accused man had discussed harming his former girlfriend for months before her Aug. 12 death.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Two days before Tisha Marinoccio was fatally stabbed inside her sixth-floor apartment, an employee at the building where she and her former boyfriend both lived told police that Matthew Almontes made an explicit threat against her. Investigators say the warning was part of a longer pattern described by the employee after Marinoccio’s death.

The employee told investigators that Almontes had spoken about stabbing Marinoccio over roughly six months and had become fixated on her, according to a police report described by the New Haven Register. On the Monday before the killing, the employee said Almontes threatened to kill her by stabbing her and suggested the weapon would not be found. The account has become a central part of the case against Almontes, who was 39 at the time and is charged with murder and tampering with evidence. The witness’s descriptions of Almontes’ behavior and mental state are allegations contained in the police report and have not been established as findings in court.

The killing occurred on Aug. 12 at the Charles T. McQueeney Towers on Orange Street, where police said Marinoccio and Almontes lived in the same building. Shortly before 3:30 p.m., Marinoccio, 42, called 911 herself. Police said she reported that her former boyfriend had stabbed her and had left her apartment carrying the weapon. Officers responding to the sixth floor found her conscious but seriously wounded. She was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she died during emergency treatment. Police have not publicly described a detailed sequence of what happened inside the apartment before the call, and the available reports do not establish what immediately preceded the attack.

Investigators quickly focused on Almontes in part because Marinoccio had identified him during the emergency call, according to police. Officers searching around the apartment complex found him outside, sitting on a bench, according to the police report. He was detained without a reported extended search. Police later said Almontes acknowledged discarding the knife in a dumpster behind the building. Investigators searched through the dumpster and recovered a knife that authorities identified as the weapon used in the stabbing. The evidence-tampering charge stems from the allegation that the weapon was thrown away after the attack.

Surveillance footage from the property also became part of the investigation. Police said video showed Almontes entering and leaving Marinoccio’s apartment and later going through a rear exit of the building. The footage then showed him throwing an object into a dumpster in the rear alley, authorities said. Police recovered the knife from that area after Almontes was taken into custody. The combination of Marinoccio’s 911 identification, the surveillance video, the recovered weapon and statements attributed to Almontes and a building employee formed the publicly described evidence in the first days after his arrest. Prosecutors would still have to prove the criminal charges in court.

The reported threats raised questions about what people around the former couple knew before the killing. The building employee told investigators that Almontes had discussed stabbing Marinoccio repeatedly during the preceding six months. The employee, who said they had known him for about seven years, described him as increasingly obsessed with Marinoccio. A separate close friend of Marinoccio later contacted police asking for a welfare check and told investigators that Almontes had previously harassed and threatened her, according to the police report. Publicly available accounts do not say whether those earlier claims had been reported to police before Aug. 12 or whether any court order concerning contact between the two had been in effect.

The shared address is an important part of the case because the former couple continued living in the same apartment building after their relationship ended. That proximity meant Almontes was already at the property when officers responded to Marinoccio’s emergency call. Police said Marinoccio told dispatchers not only who had attacked her but also that he lived in the building and had left her apartment with the knife. Authorities have not released a full recording or transcript of the call in the reports reviewed for this story, and they have not publicly detailed how Almontes entered the apartment or how long he was inside.

The case unfolded during an unusually violent half-hour in downtown New Haven. Police were already responding to a separate fatal stabbing near the New Haven Green when the call from Orange Street came in. Authorities said the two cases were unrelated. In the Orange Street investigation, however, officers were able to identify and detain a suspect almost immediately. The other stabbing initially involved a search for a different attacker. Police emphasized that the incidents were separate despite their close timing and relative proximity.

Marinoccio’s family later sought to shift attention from the circumstances of her death to the life she had lived. Her daughter, Leanah Marie Robitaille, told Hearst Connecticut Media that Marinoccio loved the ocean, animals, music and the beach. Relatives described her as a caring person, offering a portrait that contrasted with the police reports focused on the final hours of her life. The family’s comments, published several weeks after the killing, provided some of the first substantial public information about Marinoccio beyond the emergency call, investigation and criminal case.

The later family account also corrected an incomplete picture created by some early reports, which carried inconsistent ages for both Marinoccio and Almontes. New Haven police information and subsequent local coverage identify Marinoccio as 42 when she died and Almontes as 39 when he was arrested. Police listed Marinoccio’s date of birth as March 29, 1984, and Almontes’ as Aug. 18, 1986. Some national reports published in the first days after the killing gave different ages. The local police information is consistent with the ages reported by New Haven-area outlets covering the case directly.

Almontes was charged with murder and tampering with evidence and ordered held on a $1.5 million bond, according to police and subsequent local reporting. The police report said he declined to give investigators a formal statement after he was booked, despite the reported admission concerning the discarded knife. A refusal to speak with investigators does not establish guilt, and the charges remain allegations unless proven in court. Public reports reviewed for this article did not identify a plea or provide a later ruling resolving the case.

The most recent local reporting located for this story, published Sept. 10, said Almontes remained held on the $1.5 million bond. The case centers not only on what police say happened inside Marinoccio’s apartment on Aug. 12, but also on the warnings investigators say were voiced before it: months of alleged discussions about harming her, a specific threat two days earlier and a friend’s account of earlier harassment. Those claims are now part of a criminal case in which the courts, rather than police reports alone, will determine whether prosecutors can prove the charges.

Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.