DANIA BEACH, Fla. – Detectives were investigating the deaths of a 42-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman after violence at a leasing community in eastern Broward County.
Deputies found Dareika Chery dead shortly after 1:45 a.m., on Monday at Elevate, an apartment building near a natural preserve with walking trails in Dania Beach.
Neighbors said they heard a loud noise coming from the eighth floor of the building along East Dania Beach Boulevard, near Southeast Fifth Avenue.
“The caller is advising a neighbor is yelling for help, possibly in 812, advising banging on something, hearing a male yelling at a female,” a dispatcher said, according to a Broward County Sheriff’s Office recording.
Deputies reported finding Chery, of Lauderhill, dead inside an apartment after suffering several stab wounds. She had worked at a rehabilitation center in North Miami Beach.
Deputies found Chris Little, a resident at Elevate, injured in the hallway after he broke into a fifth-floor apartment, according to BSO deputies.
Fire rescue personnel took Little to a hospital where he later died.
Broward County court records show Little, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, had domestic violence cases involving another woman in 2009 and a 2021 aggravated battery conviction.
Florida Department of Corrections records show Little is a convicted felon who was released from prison on Nov. 8, 2022. His record includes convictions in Broward County for several crimes from 1998 to 2010.
Detectives are considering the possibility that Little fatally stabbed Chery, but the investigation was ongoing on Tuesday afternoon.
The noises residents heard in Dania Beach were so disturbing that Santiago Moreno said he decided to move a sofa to block his apartment’s main door for fear the attacker would get inside.
“It sounded like when you punch a wall very, very hard,” Moreno said.
There were bloody hand prints on the door of unit 825. Cicely Williams said her floor’s hallway turned into a gruesome crime scene.
“There was blood everywhere,” Williams said.
The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office team took the woman’s body. A crew with uniforms and trucks marked with BELFOR Property Restoration responded to the building to clean.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 to remain anonymous.
