Rogelio Lozano-Garita

Introduction

Rogelio Lozano-Garita is a 26-year-old Queens man charged with the murder of Seraphina Pereira, the 35-year-old mother of three who was reported missing from her Rockaway Beach home on October 19, 2026 and found shot dead in a shallow grave five days later. Police say Lozano-Garita — Pereira’s boyfriend, described by other outlets as her ex-boyfriend and the father of children she had — was caught on video pushing a wagon loaded with large garbage bags out of her apartment building on the day she vanished, and he was arrested Monday and charged Tuesday with murder, weapon possession, concealment of a human corpse and evidence tampering .

Background Information

Law-enforcement sources told The Post that Lozano-Garita is the father of Pereira’s youngest child; other outlets, citing the same sources, reported he fathered two of her three children . Pereira lived in the NYCHA Ocean Bay Apartments complex on Beach 54th Street in Rockaway Beach, where family members posted flyers and searched for answers after she was reported missing on the morning of October 19 . She was last seen alive that day with Lozano-Garita at her home, per law-enforcement sources .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged with murder — an allegation, not a conviction. Lozano-Garita faces murder, criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence charges; his arraignment was still pending as of Tuesday’s coverage. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty .

Pereira’s body was discovered just before 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 24 — about half a mile from her home — wrapped in a blanket in a pit near a cricket field at Rockaway Community Park in Edgemere, where the park meets Beach 58th Street and Almeda Avenue . The city medical examiner ruled her death a homicide on Monday, finding she suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck and torso; earlier reports said she had been shot repeatedly and investigators believed she may have known her killer .

The case against Lozano-Garita is built substantially on video, per law-enforcement sources: footage obtained by investigators shows him pushing a wagon containing large garbage bags out of Pereira’s Beach 54th Street building about two hours after the pair were last seen together on October 19, and later dragging the wagon into the wooded area at Beach 58th Street and Almeda Avenue — the area where her remains were found . On Monday night, police and hostage negotiators descended on the Ocean Bay complex while searching for a man believed connected to the case; authorities located and detained him at another nearby location, and he was taken into custody Monday . He was charged Tuesday with murder, criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence, per police, with his arraignment pending .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The weeklong search made the case a neighborhood story before it became a courtroom one: Pereira’s family papered the Ocean Bay complex with flyers as relatives searched for answers, and neighbors told Eyewitness News the heavy police presence confirmed their fears — “She got three kids. It’s real sad. Nobody deserves that,” one neighbor said . The charge announcement, landing five days after her body was found, closed the loop on a missing-persons case that had been covered daily by New York outlets since October 19 . No public statement from Lozano-Garita, his family or an attorney had been reported as of the latest coverage, and prosecutors’ account of a motive — and of what happened inside the apartment on the day she disappeared — has not been made public .

Current Status

Lozano-Garita is in custody after his Monday arrest, charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence; his arraignment was pending as of Tuesday, when police announced the charges . The medical examiner’s homicide ruling stands, and the charges themselves remain allegations: he has not been tried, and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty .

Impact on Their Career/Life

For Lozano-Garita, a 26-year-old identified in coverage mainly through his relationship to the victim, the charges convert a missing-person search he was seen joining into a murder prosecution built on the recorded movements sources say place him at both ends of the path between Pereira’s building and the pit where she was found . For her three children — the youngest of them his, per sources — the case file now holds the account of their mother’s last known day .

Sources

• “Boyfriend accused of gunning down missing NYC mom, dumping body in shallow grave” — New York Post: source
• “Missing Queens mother’s boyfriend charged after body found in shallow grave” — ABC7 New York: source
• “Ex-boyfriend of woman found in shallow grave in Queens charged with murder, NYPD says” — Gothamist: source
• “Man charged with murder after woman found in shallow grave in Queens” — 1010 WINS: source