Joyce Quaweay, 24, was beaten to death by her boyfriend and his best friend last Friday in Germantown, Pennsylvania.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, police say Aaron Wright, 47, Quaweay's boyfriend and the father of her two children, beat her to death with his fists and baton after stripping her naked and handcuffing her to a bench. Marquis Robinson, 41, Wright's best friend, restrained Quaweay and moved her body so that Wright could beat her.
The murder took place in the home Quaweay, Wright, Robinson and Robinson's girlfriend shared while Quaweay's two daughters with Wright, aged two years and ten months, watched nearby.
Wright is charged with murder, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, conspiracy to commit murder, and abuse of a corpse. Robinson was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, and abuse of a corpse.
Homicide Capt. James Clark said Wright was "controlling" and "he [Wright] felt like she would not submit to his authority and this was his way of punishing her to try to break her."
Wright has fired from his job as a police officer for Temple University in 2012.
Both men were once police officers at Temple University.
Neither Quaweay's half sister, Beatrice Mulbah, or her close-friend, Karyn Nettles-Davis, knew she was in an abusive relationship.
Nettles-Davis encouraged women who are currently being abused to leave. "You're not alone. There's nothing to be ashamed about. You're not doing anything wrong. And it can get worse," she said. "If somebody is putting their hands on you, they do not love you. That is not love."
