A 19-year-old who has been arrested and charged after allegedly stabbing and beheading his mother’s boyfriend inside their Staten Island home, reportedly asked his sister a chilling question at the scene.
The terrifying encounter began when Alicia Zayas’ daughter, Bri, returned from school and walked into a nightmare.
Her older brother, Damien Hurstel, was reportedly drenched in blood and urged her to go to her room. “I did something bad, go to your room,” he reportedly told her.
Accused killer asks sister a chilling question
Upon finding the scene, 16-year-old Bri reportedly asked her brother if he was also going to murder their mother in the same manner.
“She said, ‘Are you gonna hurt mom?’” the teen’s mother, Alicia Zayas, said during an emotional interview with The New York Post.
“And he said, ‘Do you want her to live?’
“And she said, ‘Yes, please.’
“He said, ‘Okay, she’ll live.’”
The disturbing incident
Despite her brother's chilling questions, curiosity and fear led Bri through the house — following bloodstains to the bathroom, where she found Anthony Casalaspro, 45, a New York City sanitation worker, lying dead in the shower. His head had been severed, and a knife remained lodged in his neck.
The teen called her mother in a panic: “Damien killed Anthony, and he doesn’t have a head,” she reportedly said.
Casalaspro’s body was later found by police, shirtless in red briefs inside a walk-in shower. A silver spoon was sticking out of his dismembered skull, and a ladle was placed on his chest. A bowl and a saw lay nearby.
Sources told The New York Post that Damien allegedly removed parts of the victim’s brain with a spoon.
“There’s blood everywhere”
Zayas, 39, rushed home after her daughter’s call, warning her to hide and dial 911 if she didn’t hear back within two minutes. She arrived to find the front door wide open and her son standing calmly in the kitchen.
“His eyes looked different,” she recalled. “He has light eyes. The eyes looked dark. It looked weird.
“I said, ‘Damien, what’s going on? What’s wrong, honey? What are you doing?’”
“Cleaning,” he replied flatly, “as if he’s cleaning dishes, like it’s normal.”
She walked past him slowly, terrified, and reached the bathroom — where she screamed in horror at the sight of Casalaspro’s mutilated body. “Why? Why? Why? Why? He loves you. Why would you do this?” she cried.
She called 911 and said: “Come quick. My son killed my boyfriend. … He has no head.”
Damien's mental health struggles
According to Zayas, her son had long struggled with serious mental health issues, including PTSD, major depression, and hallucinations beginning at age 13.
He began showing symptoms at the age of six, after his father went to prison. He attempted suicide twice and was hospitalized multiple times.
He was later prescribed antipsychotic medications, but Zayas says the system failed him when he transitioned into adult care earlier this year.
In January, his medication — Depakote — was changed without her knowledge as he was legally an adult, and she only learned about it when a pharmacist warned her that the drug required tapering.
“I’m just devastated,” she said. “My son wasn’t like this before. He was a good boy. Something is seriously wrong with him.”
Despite being his legal guardian for most of his life, Zayas said she was locked out of his medical care once he turned 18. “I didn’t even know what doctors he was going to,” she added. “I don’t even know if he was going to all the appointments.”
Hurstel now faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon, but his attorneys say his long, documented history of mental illness must be considered.