Cops investigating the mysterious murder of big-time real-estate agent and punk-rock pioneer Linda Stein were looking to talk to a former assistant with whom she argued over a commission, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
Raul Diaz Bernal, 49, told The Post yesterday he was scheduled to meet with police last night, but wouldn’t comment further.
Sources said Bernal had been fired as Stein’s assistant at the powerful Prudential Douglas Elliman brokerage firm a few months ago following the dispute, in which he allegedly accused her of stiffing him on a sale.
Bernal, described by neighbors in his East 90th Street building as handsome man who lives with a beautiful blond girlfriend, did not answer his door or phone last night. One resident said he had “looked upset” lately “and didn’t say hello anymore.”
While police were very interested in speaking to Bernal, he wasn’t considered a suspect last night. Investigators also wanted to speak to several others who knew Stein. At the same time, sources close to the real-estate firm said Bernal had been let go because “he never made any money.”
Stein – who had long battled cancer – had relied upon Bernal to help her with errands, and he had the keys to her posh Fifth Avenue apartment, where she was found bludgeoned to death, the sources said.
But as she recovered from the cancer, “she didn’t need him anymore,” one source said.
Police also believe that several other people had the keys to Stein’s apartment, and want to talk to them.
Investigators have determined that Stein, 62, died from multiple blows to the head and neck. Her daughter, Mandy Stein, found her body in the living room of the 18th-floor apartment at about 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Stein’s ex-husband, recording exec Seymour Stein, said, “The full impact that Linda is truly gone has not yet set in. Perhaps after the funeral I will be able to start dealing with the loss.”
Meanwhile, investigators pored over Stein’s apartment at 965 Fifth Ave., but so far had come up with few clues.
They have determined that a female assistant to Stein last saw her in the apartment at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. They also determined that Stein spoke to her daughter at about 1 p.m.
They think Stein was killed sometime in the late afternoon.
Building staffers told police they did not recall letting anyone up to her apartment after the assistant left. Two people staff the lobby, and both the main and service elevators have attendants. The main elevator opens directly into the building’s apartments, and there are no hallways.
Surveillance tapes from the building’s lobby and a side door leading to the service elevator also revealed no obvious clues.
But sources at Elliman said police told them it might be possible for someone who knows the building well to enter and not be caught on tape by avoiding the angle of the cameras. Investigators took fingerprints, DNA and fiber samples from a construction crew of nine men who had been working on the roof. They also took several hand tools found on the roof for analysis.
“Everybody did it [the tests]. A couple of guys had gone to another job and I called them and told them to come,” said the roof job’s foreman, Miguel Chiqui.
“We didn’t have any access to any of the floors. We want to cooperate.”
Friends said Stein had never felt unsafe in her 2,000-square-foot, $3 million apartment, and often left the door unlocked so her daughters could come and go.
“She would leave her door unlocked because she felt safe. Her daughter would come in to get the dog. If you go in your building, you think you are safe,” said a close friend, who asked not to be identified.
Stein’s funeral is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. today at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 180 W. 76th St.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Fermino, Sam Goldsmith, Larry Celona and Cristina Luckner