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Hyde Park woman fears she helped killers lure pizza man to his death

Print Posted by Martin Finucane September 2, 2010 02:11 PM

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By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

A Hyde Park woman said she fears she unknowingly played a key role in the death of a Domino's Pizza delivery man whose body was found today inside a vacant Hyde Park building.

Marie Clena-Tunis, of Hyde Park Avenue, said today she lent her cellphone to a woman around 11 p.m. last night. Clena-Tunis said she did not hear who the woman spoke with, but fears the woman called the pizza shop that dispatched the murder victim to her neighborhood.

“She didn’t tell me what it was about, she said she wanted to use it because her phone was dead,” said Clena-Tunis, who described the woman as heavyset who spoke a hint of Creole.

Clena-Tunis said she had just arrived home from church and looked out her window when she saw the woman outside, asking for help to use her phone. Clena-Tunis sent her son out to hand the woman the phone, at about 11 p.m. She did not hear the conversation.

Just after midnight this morning, police discovered the body of the delivery man in the building next to Clena-Tunis' home. She said she did not know that a crime had taken place until she saw a large number of Boston police cruisers in her neighborhood.

Police are hunting for three people -- a woman and two men -- in connection with the robbery. The victim, whose name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, had been stabbed multiple times, police said.

Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said today the victim was attacked as he was making a delivery to 742 Hyde Park Ave. shortly after midnight. Police said the victim worked for the Domino's Pizza on Truman Parkway in Hyde Park.

"When he arrived, he encountered a suspect or suspects, at which point the stabbing occurred," said Driscoll.

Police said the victim was in his 50s, but didn't release his name.

"This is a terrible crime for the community and his family and we're going to do everything we can to solve it," said Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis.

Witnesses told police two men and a woman stole the victim's car and fled. Police said this morning that the green Subaru had been found behind St. Adalbert's Church in Hyde Park.

"Getting this car in such a timely fashion has made it much easier for us to process this scene," Davis said. He said the car had yielded evidence, but would not say what kind of evidence it was.

Davis said the victim was called to a vacant house that had been for sale about a year. He was found inside the building.

The homicide is the 43rd murder this year compared with 38 killings last year at this time. This is the fifth murder in Boston in the last week.

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