Denisse Oleas-Arancibia: New York police identifies woman found dead in hotel with cuts on her face

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: Police recently identified the 38-year-old woman who was found dead with a bloody iron next to her head in a Manhattan hotel.

In another development, the son of the woman has revealed she had been 'nervous' in the days leading up to her death.

Denisse Oleas-Arancibia was found in her room by a maid at SoHo 54 Hotel around 10.30 am on Thursday, February 8. Cops found her unconscious and unresponsive with trauma to her face, and she was pronounced dead at the scene, as per police. 

What did Arancibia's son say? 

Arancibia's 18-year-old son Edwin Cevallos, said the last time he spoke to his mother was the day before she died. He said he had noticed something different about her in the week prior to the tragedy.

He said, "In the week before she was like, sad. She was so nervous and she was worried,'' Cevallos told the New York Daily News in Spanish, though he's not sure if that had any connection to her death.

For context, a hotel maid found Oleas-Arancibia’s body.

"My mom, she worked very hard,” Cevallos said. “She was working all day. She was always working for us to give us the best life in this country.”

"The best part of her is she always helped us and the family and she was very organized,” he added, breaking down in tears often as he talked about his mother. “She always had money to cover anything in the house. She didn’t owe no money to anybody.”

Cevallos said he didn’t know what his mother did for a living or what brought her to the hotel on the day of killing. "All I knew is that everyday at 2 pm she went to Manhattan to work,” he said.

The city Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine how she died.

Arancibia's son called the police when she didn't return from work

Cevallos said he called police after she didn’t come home from work the night before.

“I was waiting for her to come the next day and at 1 pm. I saw that she didn’t come home so then I called the police,” he said.

A cop showed up at his house not long after then took him to Manhattan to break the news she had been found dead hours earlier.

Oleas-Arancibia, one of four siblings, has her family still living in Ecuador, including her 13-year-old son and both of her parents.

About his mother, he said, "She was a very good person. She never hurt anybody. She was always paying for everything. She never owed money to anybody. She was always looking to help them move forward."

Cevallos added, "I am in shock. I can’t believe this happened. This is surprising." He added. “Everything here in New York reminds me of her. Everything.”

He described his mother as happy and fun-loving, weeping as he showed a photo of her from his 18th birthday dinner at a Brazilian restaurant.