A 22-year-old man has admitted he “freaked out” and fatally stabbed a former US diplomat’s wife after startling the sleeping woman when he broke into her friend’s Long Island home, prosecutors revealed yesterday.
Robert Schiavo confessed to the kitchen-knife killing of retired school librarian Nancy McKinley, 61, less than 24 hours after the shocking crime in tony Bellport Village early Sunday, authorities said.
“I don’t think he showed a lot of remorse for the victim,” said Suffolk County prosecutor Kerri Kelly Schiavo, of Medford, was ordered held without bail on a charge of second-degree murder.
A Bellport native whose primary residence was in Washington, DC, McKinley was the wife of Brunson McKinley, the former US ambassador to Haiti and former director-general of the International Organization for Migration.
Nancy McKinley maintained a house in Bellport, but it is undergoing renovations, which is why the mother of two was staying at her lifelong friend Susan Callahan’s home over the weekend.
Schiavo told cops he entered Callahan’s home just before 1 a.m. Sunday through a rear door, looked around for things to steal, then grabbed an 8-inch kitchen knife after he saw that a first-floor light that had been on was switched off, authorities said.
He walked into the bedroom where McKinley was sleeping and poked her, which caused her to wake and begin screaming.
Schiavo said he “panicked and freaked out” and stabbed her more than a dozen times before fleeing, court records state.
Police said they quickly suspected Schiavo because he was already being eyed for the December burglary of a house several doors away from Callahan’s residence.