‘The children were out in the road with their mother’: Mom of 3 dead in Fitchburg stabbing

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A Fitchburg mom of three is dead after officials say she was stabbed Tuesday night by a woman she was living with. That woman was also being treated for stab wounds.

Neighbors called 911 at 10:17 p.m., and Jennifer Narvaez-Colon, 34, was found in the street in front of her home at 35 Wanoosnoc Road with “multiple stab wounds,” Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said in a Wednesday press conference. 

Narvaez-Colon’s children, ages 13, 12, and 8, were trying to help their mother, Early said.

“The children were out in the road with their mother,” he said, adding that they were “rendering aid” to her. She was pronounced dead at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester at 12:36 a.m. Wednesday.

Wanda Liz Gonzalez, 33, who was living with Narvaez-Colon, was found inside one of the bedrooms of the home with wounds on her head and neck when law enforcement arrived, Early said. She was brought to the UMass hospital in Worcester with nonlife-threatening injuries.

Gonzalez was charged with domestic assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to Early. She was arraigned at the hospital Wednesday and a not guilty plea was submitted. A dangerousness hearing is set for Friday in Fitchburg District Court, according to a news release from Early’s office.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is performing an autopsy on Narvaez-Colon, the DA said.

“We anticipate that there will be some changes to the charges, but we can’t do anything until we get the autopsy back and have a specific cause and manner of death,” Early said.

While he couldn’t elaborate on the relationship between the two women or what the circumstances were surrounding the incident, Early did say the incident was “not a random act.”

Fitchburg Police Chief Ernest Martineau, also at the press conference, said his department believes the incident was “isolated” and that “there appears to be no danger” to other people living in the area.

The investigation is still active, Early said, and a search warrant was being executed at the home on Wednesday.

The three children were planned to be interviewed at the DA’s Children’s Advocacy Center, and reunited with family, he said.

“These crimes are never easy to handle,” Martineau said in commending those who responded to the incident.