Stepdaughter kills, castrates after alleged abuse

BY NICK BROWN

Thursday, August 2, 2007 11:44 AM EDT

A Staten Island man found dead and castrated in his stepdaughter's apartment was the apparent victim of an act of vengeance for years of abuse, sources say.

Eric Goodridge, 55, is believed to have been murdered by stepdaughter Brigitte Harris, 26, of Rockaway on Saturday, July 28.

Harris left notes suggesting Goodridge had sexually abused her as a child.

“He wrecked my life,” said one note. “At first, I blamed myself. Now I know it's not my fault,” read another.

Police say Harris lured Goodridge to her home through email, then handcuffed him to a chair, gagged him with duct tape, and strangled him. After he was dead, officials say, she cut off his genitals.

Harris proceeded to report the murder, then checked herself into a mental hospital and began ranting semi-coherently about the slaying.

“That she killed in this particular fashion would be revenge,” said Dr. Louis Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in published reports. “For a woman to do this to her stepfather, it says ‘abused' all over it�Castration, there's a message there: she's basically eliminating the technique of abuse.”

Calling herself the “Original Dark Angel” and “Lady Vengeance,” Harris alluded to her rage on a MySpace profile, which blares a song by metal band OTEP each time it is accessed. The song's lyrics viciously pledge that “I will be avenged/these are the secrets that kill.”

Family members are divided on whether they believe the claims of abuse.

“He wouldn't pay child support, but I wouldn't believe [that he would abuse anyone],” said the mother of Goodridge's ex-wife in published reports.

A former brother-in-law, however, noted that if a person “pulls a Lorena Bobbitt, there's probably a good reason.”

Carleen Goodridge, Harris' stepsister, refused to comment on the matter, but suggested that the family's dark history would “all come out.”

Harris, a native of Liberia, works for a private security company at Kennedy Airport. Her family has arranged for a lawyer, but published reports indicate Harris has not spoken to the attorney as of yet.

THE COURIER SUN/PHOTO BY BRYAN PACE
The Medical Examiners office removes a body in relation to the murder at 436 Beach 69th Street in the Rockaways on July 28, 2007.