New York City teacher Simeonette Mapes-Crupi stabbed to death in botched home invasion robbery

A husband arrived home to find his wife murdered, stabbed in the back in what police are investigating as a home invasion robbery gone wrong.

The body of Simeonette Mapes-Crupi, 29, a New York City teacher, was found on Thursday afteoon by her husband Jonathan, 30, at their home on Staten Island.

Reports said that Mrs Mapes-Crupi was found face-down with several stab wounds in her back by the door to their apartment.

Mrs Mapes-Crupi was a teacher in the New York City school system, working at a high school in the East New York section of Brooklyn, where her husband also teaches.

Police told the Staten Island Advance that there did not appear to be any signs of forced entry at the home, which had been ransacked.

The murder has left the community in shock. As news of the murder spread, numerous onlookers gathered around the couple's apartment, which had been sealed off by police tape.

Local resident Gabrielle Blinderman, 19, told the Advance: 'I don't think anything has really happened like that [in the past].'

Neighbours reported that they didn’t see or hear anything suspicious until her husband made the horrific discovery.

Area: Mrs Mapes-Crupi's body was found near the door of the couple's apartment in this condo complex on Staten Island

One onlooker, who declined to be identified, told the New York Daily News: 'He’s like, "She’s dead! I came home! It was hot! She was dead! She’s dead! She’s dead! It was hot! I wasn’t here. I had to work!"'

Another witness told the paper that he came out of the home screaming, 'My wife was murdered!'

Just last week, Mrs Crupi spoke of a scary incident when she posted on Facebook that she and her husband had witnessed a shootout near the school they teach at.

She wrote on June 28: ‘[My husband] and I survived a shoot out today...Thank God we are ok, I'm sure over summer school we'll find out what the fighting was about'