Family desperately searched for man stabbed to death in Bronx laundromat

The worried family of Jose Miranda, the man who was stabbed in the back while half asleep in a Bronx laundromat, had been desperately trying to track him down for the past few months.

But the family's hopes of a longed-for reunion were dashed by the gratuitous murder of the 45-year-old victim, captured on video.

“He died in a bad way,” the victim's father, Jimmy Miranda, 62, told the Daily News in an exclusive interview. “But he wasn't a bad boy. He didn't hurt anyone. He wasn't a bad person at all.”

Jose had fallen on hard times during his long battle with heroin addiction and, according to relatives of the victim and Bronx residents, often slept nightly in the 24-hour laundromat where he was murdered on August 8.

His family hoped he would eventually return to their longtime home in Haverstraw, New York, about 30 miles north of the Bronx.

“We didn't know what was wrong with him. He was missing for 16 months. It broke my mother's heart,” said the victim's brother, Ismael Miranda, 46. “He chose to be over there – even though he really had this here.”

On June 18, a family friend even posted a desperate appeal on Facebook asking for information about Jose's whereabouts.

“His mother Marisol is looking for him, has not heard from him in two years and is extremely worried,” the post said.

The whole family was worried.

“We didn't know where he was,” Jose's father said. “We were about to report him missing to the police… We held on because a family friend had seen him in town four or five months ago. He told my wife, 'He's fine.'”

As a shocking video shows, Miranda was slumped in a chair at Laundromat 303 on East 170th Street near College Avenue when her killer approached her around 2:40 a.m. with a bundle of clothes in his arms.

Jose was taken to Lincoln Hospital along with a 47-year-old man who had been stabbed once in the back by the killer.

While the other victim is expected to recover, Jose died in hospital, as his family soon learned.

“The detective called my wife,” the victim's father said. “They asked about him. They said we have to go to you. But they didn't tell her. They didn't say what it was. I told her, 'Mari, I know he's gone.' I already knew. I was already prepared.”

Still, Jimmy was shocked when he learned the details of his son's death.

“It makes me angry,” he said.[It was] for no reason at all. For nothing. For what? Why? It's stupid.”

Jose was born in Chicago, grew up in Haverstraw and had a special talent for drawing.

“Even as a little boy, he would put something on the canvas and bring it to life,” his brother recalled. “He drew a lot of characters. He was into samurai. I couldn't beat him at that. He always made me mad. He was just damn good.”

In Haverstraw, locals knew Jose by his nickname “Bichin,” a talented and charismatic busy barber.

“I showed him how to cut hair. He learned and took it to the next level,” Ismael recalls. “He was always walking around with clippers. Everyone wanted a Bichin haircut because there were a lot of stories attached to it. They wanted to see what came out of his mouth. He was damn funny.”

Jose worked in various hair salons over the years and hoped to one day work in a particular salon in Manhattan.

“Everyone wanted him. His haircuts took a long time, but oh God, it was a Picasso,” said Ismael. “Everyone loved him. Everyone knew him.”

But Jose's father found needles in the bathroom of the family's home in Haverstraw and kicked Jose out a few years ago.

“He went to a [rehab] “We often put him in programs.”

Jose got a place to stay in New York City with two friends he had met in rehab and regularly drove to Haverstraw to visit Eli, one of his two sons.

“He came to visit him and spend time with him. He went out with him, took him for walks,” Jimmy recalls, noting that the visits stopped two years ago. “When [Eli] when he was little, he pushed him on his bike.”

Jose's drug addiction began in his teens and got worse over time. He even spent a time in prison, his father said.

Despite his addiction, Jimmy remembered his son as a calm, quiet man.

“Everyone tells me he never bothered anyone or anything. He did a few drugs and was cool,” the father said. “I never saw him fight with anyone. He was the best kid. He just did his thing. You didn't even hear him. He hardly talks.”

Jimmy understands his son's struggle with addiction all too well.

“I went through that. I used to sit in the doorway of the bodega in the winter. I started taking drugs when they were babies,” he said of his children.

“I got caught up in the game. My wife raised them. I was on the streets and in jail. It's my fault. A lot of it is my fault. Very rarely did I go to the park with him. I was on the streets, drinking and fooling around.”

On the Bronx block where he was killed, people knew Jose by the nickname “Jeezy,” a reference to his Jesus-like facial features, residents said.

“God bless him,” said a 57-year-old man who lives near the laundromat. “When I met him, he was nice to me. He wasn't disrespectful. He didn't bother anyone. He was always in his own world.”

The shocking murder sparked a manhunt by the New York Police Department, and a few hours later, police caught 39-year-old homeless parolee Clarence Woodward. During the investigation into the murder, police found two cleavers in the laundromat.

Woodward's 2017 Facebook profile picture shows him in the laundromat. Neighbors say homeless people sleep there and that drugs are being sold on the block.

A Bronx Criminal Court judge ordered Woodward held without bail at his arraignment on August 9 on charges of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and assault.

Woodward, who was staying at a Brooklyn homeless shelter, has served three federal prison terms, all for convictions in the Bronx, including attempted robbery and aggravated assault. He has been arrested 27 times, according to police.

A relative of Woodward said she was sorry for what he allegedly did to her and noted that she had not seen him in years.

“He killed someone? That's terrible,” said the woman, who wished to remain anonymous. “He has a mental problem. We have no contact with him.”

With Ellen Moynihan