an coming and going from Lovay's apartment Saturday. The man left for the final time at 12:24 p.m., getting into a car carrying a bunch of trash bags full of stuff, Aiken said.

Cops arrived just over an hour later after a female relative called 911 asking for a wellness check, according to the NYPD.

 She was always, always, a good mother to my granddaughter,  Nuquan said of Lovay, who was studying for her GED, taking college classes and working as a home health aide.  Police came to the house and when they knocked my granddaughter opened the door for them. 

The Administration for Children's Services briefly took custody of the girl before turning her over to her grandmother, who will now raise her.

 She's still thinking that her mother's asleep,  NuQuan said of his granddaughter.  Because normally, her mother go to sleep, she'll lay next to her mother. That's their thing. They was always together. It hasn't hit her yet but soon she'll be looking for her mother. 

NuQuan started to learn of the tragedy when he got a call from his son.

 He was telling me that ACS said to come to the hospital, that something happened with Lovay,  Nuquan said.

 When the police department came to the residence her mom was dead so they took (Lovay's daughter) to the hospital to check her out, make sure she's OK. They must have looked for the next of kin and that's when they called us and told us to come to the hospital. We was looking for Lovay and they kept giving us the runaround … I kept asking,  Where's Lovay?' 

When he couldn't get answer at the hospital, NuQuan went to his daughter's home.

 I said,  You know what? Let me go back to Lovay's house,'  he said.  And Lovay was still in the apartment, dead. So we waited for the Medical Examiner to come and we watched them take her body out. 

Lovay talked to her mother on the phone all day every day, relatives said, and loved to take care of her whole extended family.

 She loved cooking. She could cook you out the kitchen,  said Lovay's aunt Precious Manners added.  I had just spoke to her and we was supposed to get together and she was going to cook for me. I was regularly checking up on her. 

 Then something like this happens and it feels like she was robbed from us,  she added.  She lived for her daughter so it was heartbreaking that this happened in front of her. 

With Rocco Parascandola