Robert Carragher was found on the kitchen floor after climbing upstairs from his basement bedroom, police said.
MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. — Nassau County police say a 911 call to a Beaumont Avenue home led officers from a basement bedroom to a kitchen floor, where Robert Carragher lay dying from a neck wound.
The early morning response on June 1 became a murder investigation within minutes. Police said Carragher, 28, had been stabbed in the basement bedroom of the home he shared with his parents, then climbed the stairs while screaming for help. Kristin Sculley, 22, of Massapequa, was later found hiding nearby in the basement laundry room, police said. She has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and remains in custody.
Officers from the Seventh Precinct were sent to the house shortly after 1:30 a.m. for what police first described as an aided call. Inside, they found Carragher unconscious and bleeding from a severe stab wound to the neck. His parents had tried to stop the bleeding in the kitchen after he reached them from the basement. Nassau County Police Detective Lt. George Darienzo later said the scene was devastating for the family. “His mother and father came to his aid,” Darienzo said. “They attempted to control that bleeding in the kitchen.” A police medic pronounced Carragher dead at the home, and homicide detectives took over the investigation.
Police said Sculley and Carragher had spent several hours together before the stabbing. Investigators said they had known each other for years and were in Carragher’s basement bedroom watching television. Prosecutors later said Carragher was asleep when Sculley pulled a knife from her purse and stabbed him once in the neck. Officers found Sculley in the basement laundry room near the bedroom and recovered a pocketknife, police said. Authorities have not publicly released a full evidence inventory. They also have not said whether the knife had been tested for fingerprints or DNA, whether blood patterns were analyzed, or whether the bedroom showed signs of a struggle.
The layout of the home became central to the first police account. Carragher’s bedroom was in the basement, while his parents were upstairs when they heard him. Police said he was able to get from the bed area to the stairs after being wounded. He made it to the kitchen before losing consciousness. Darienzo said Carragher “died in his father’s arms” as his mother watched. The detail shaped the public understanding of the case because the killing took place inside a family home and ended in front of the victim’s parents. Police have not released the parents’ names, and officials have not made their full witness statements public.
The investigation soon moved from the home to court. Sculley was arrested and arraigned in Nassau County court the day after the stabbing. She pleaded not guilty and was remanded. On June 24, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office announced that a grand jury had indicted her on one count of murder in the second degree. She was arraigned before Judge Robert Bogle and again pleaded not guilty. The charge is an A-I felony, and prosecutors said Sculley faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Her next court date is July 24.
By the time of the indictment, the defense had begun challenging the prosecution’s theory. Defense attorney Dennis Lemke said Sculley reported that she had been drugged and that Carragher tried to sexually assault her. He said she stabbed him once in self-defense after waking in a dazed state. Prosecutors rejected that claim and said Sculley stabbed Carragher while he slept after an argument. The two accounts create different meanings for the same physical evidence: a single neck wound, a knife, a basement bedroom, a laundry room where Sculley was found and a kitchen where Carragher collapsed. The court has not resolved those disputes.
Police said possible drug use was part of the investigation, but early public statements left major details open. Darienzo said investigators had evidence there may have been drug use, but said no drugs were found in the home at that time. Later court statements from the defense and prosecution both mentioned drugs, though in different ways. Lemke linked drugs to Sculley’s claim that she was incapacitated. Prosecutors said drug use did not explain or justify a killing. Officials have not released toxicology results, and it remains unclear what substances, if any, were found in either person’s system. Those records could become important if the case goes to trial.
Friends and neighbors filled in some of the human details after police identified the people involved. Carragher was widely referred to as Bobby by those who knew him. Thomas Maloney, a friend, said, “Anybody who knew Bobby, he was the funniest person alive.” Sculley’s family left court without public comment after early proceedings. A neighbor of Sculley’s family said her father had died years earlier and that her mother had raised two daughters. Those public comments did not answer the central question in the case, but they showed how close the two families were to the same Massapequa community.
The next steps are expected to test the police account against forensic and medical records. Prosecutors may seek to show that the path from the basement to the kitchen fits an attack on a sleeping victim. The defense may seek evidence supporting Sculley’s claim that she was drugged or assaulted before the stabbing. Judge Bogle will also oversee pretrial issues, including what evidence can be used, what records must be shared and whether Sculley remains held without bail. No trial date has been announced.
Forensic testing, witness statements and pretrial motions are expected to shape the next stage. The case returns to court July 24.
Author note: Last updated July 6, 2026.