#Connecticut man charged with killing ex amid child custody fight

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Andre LeFrancois and Rosali Violet Acquefreda
Ansonia Police Department; Facebook

A Connecticut man has been charged with murdering his ex during an ongoing child custody fight for their 3-year-old son, according to reports.

Andre LeFrancois, 22, of Ansonia, was arrested Wednesday on charges of murder and risk of injury to a child in the death of 20-year-old Rosali Violet Acquefreda, the mother of the couple’s 3-year-old son, Eli, the Connecticut Post reports.

“Justice is served,” Acquefreda’s father, Joseph Acqufreda Jr., said at a press conference. “My daughter is finally at peace.”

Acquefreda said his daughter was victimized since she was 14 throughout a “toxic relationship” with LeFrancois and “lived in fear” of him.

The Derby woman was pronounced dead at a hospital Sunday after cops were notified of a possible hit-and-run crash in Ansonia. But paramedics found her with multiple stabs wounds rather than injuries consistent with a car crash, the Hartford Courant reports.

A medical examiner later ruled her death to be a homicide caused by multiple stab wounds, according to the Connecticut Post.

Relatives allege LeFrancios attacked his former partner because she was set to move to a new home with the couple’s son, her father and her current boyfriend, the Courant reports.

“We just wanted to be a family and be away from anything [bad] and just be happy,” Joseph Acquefreda said Wednesday. “That was unfortunately taken away … she will live with us.”

The young mother and LeFrancois had been mired in a legal fight for custody of their toddler son. A hearing on the matter was scheduled for Thursday in Milford Superior Court, according to the Connecticut Post.

LeFrancois was arraigned Thursday and a judge set his bond at $750,000 before continuing the case to Sept. 10.

Acquefreda’s mother, meanwhile, said the young mother’s family and friends are “still in denial” over the slaying, the Connecticut Post reports.

“My daughter suffered for over five years with this man,” Acquefreda’s mother said Thursday. “All I can say is she’s free now.”