GoFundMe set up for mom and two young kids found stabbed to death in apartment
Updated Feb 10, 2020; Posted Feb 08, 2020
By Olivia Rizzo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to defray costs for the family of Ruth Reyes Severino and her two children, who were found stabbed to death in their Penns Grove apartment Wednesday.
The fundraiser was established to help with funeral costs for Reyes and her children: daughter Eurianny, 5, and son Eury, 2. The funeral will take place in Reyes's home country of the Dominican Republic, where her immediate family lives.
Yahaira Perez, a cousin of Reyes's, told NJ Advance Media Saturday it will be expensive to bring Reyes and her children back to their mother's home country, especially because they will have to travel to a remote area three hours outside of Santo Domingo, the nation's capital.
Perez said Reyes's mother is devastated over the news of her daughter's death. Reyes has three brothers and she was the family's only daughter, Perez said.
A cousin told NJ Advance Media that Reyes would send money home to her mother to support her and that she never forgot about her family in the Dominican Republic.
"She was an amazing mother to her kids and an amazing daughter to her mother," she said. "We never thought anything like this would happen to her, she was so young."
Reyes and her children were found stabbed to death in their Penns Grove apartment Wednesday. Her husband's body was found in a wooded area nearby, the Salem County Prosecutor's Office said.
Authorities still have not labeled the deaths of the Severino family murder-suicide.
A family member told NJ Advance Media that the couple had marital problems and that Reyes had obtained a restraining order against her husband a few weeks ago after he threatened to kill her.
Investigators confirmed that a temporary restraining order was issued Jan. 12 and a final order was issued Jan. 16.
GoFundMe said they are working directly with the organizer of the fundraiser to ensure the money goes directly to Reyes' family.
Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.
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