Estranged husband charged with murder of beloved East Harlem NYCHA worker, mother of 3

The estranged husband of a beloved NYCHA worker in East Harlem has been charged with her brutal stabbing murder.

Dwayne Street, 46, was hit with murder, assault and stalking charges in the Jan. 5 slaying of his wife, 45-year-old Lisa Epton, cops said Sunday.

Police arrested Street at his home in the Wagner Houses on E. 124th St. on Saturday, cops said, two months after he was identified as a person of interest.

Cops initially circulated a wanted poster for Street stating he was sought “for questioning only” but should be “considered armed and dangerous” and “approached with caution.”

Unable to call her at home, Epton’s friends and family found her lifeless body — facedown in the kitchen, stabbed in the torso — in her late mother’s E. 102nd St. apartment near First Ave., where she was known to visit.

“We were trying to reach her all day, but she wasn’t picking up, not even for her kids,” Taeya Clark, a close friend of Epton’s, told the Daily News. “We called her daughter and we just went over. [Her daughter] found her on the floor.”

Epton still had the keys to her late mom’s apartment, which she sometimes used for family gatherings after her mother’s death in October, relatives said.

Street and Epton had been together for about 10 years, but were currently estranged, family members told The News. Street was living with his mother in East Harlem.

On Oct. 18, Street was arrested for criminal mischief for destroying two TVs during a fight in Epton’s apartment a year earlier, cops said.

And one friend told The News that Street was stalking Epton. “He went to her job a week earlier and choked her,” Ana Mayor said at a vigil for the victim in January.

Epton had three adult children and worked for the New York City Housing Authority, friends said.

In a Feb. 19 post on Facebook, daughter Destiny Ortega wished her a happy birthday, and said, “Not having you here is so hard! I love and miss you tremendously. Please visit me in my dreams again so I can feel your presence.”

A neighbor who spoke with The News after Epton’s killing described her as a devoted mom who decorated the common spaces on the floor of her apartment building for every major holiday.

“She thought it was important for the kids,” the woman said. “Her spirit was infectious. She lived for the kids.”

Street is being held at Rikers Island, and is expected to be arraigned on an indictment in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, officials said.

One of Epton’s close friends celebrated Street’s arrest in a Facebook post Sunday.

“Now I’m hoping that you can rest peacefully! I will always miss and love you!” she wrote. “Tears just won’t stop thinking of all the times we shared together all the talks we would have!”