Gonsalves

CRANSTON — Three large photos of Natasha Gonsalves sit on a small lace-covered round table in the foyer of her mother’s Brayton Avenue home. Condolence cards and a pot of lilies keep the photos company. Behind the table, a poster board on an easel displays Gonsalves smiling in family photos and childhood snapshots.

Earlier this week, friends and family gathered in the kitchen to share memories of Gonsalves. Today, they gathered at Bell Funeral Home, in Providence, to pay their last respects to the young woman they remembered as kind, generous and artistic.

“She was a peach,” her mother, Rebecca Flores, said. “As soon as you saw her — her vibe, her presence — she lit up a room.”

The police say Abimbola O. Johnson, of West Warwick, also 18 and the mother of a young son, fatally stabbed Gonsalves, 18, during an altercation last week.

Gonsalves and two friends followed Johnson to her home at 114 Pepin St. on Thursday night, according to the police. Johnson and one of Gonsalves’ friends started arguing, possibly over a man, when the police say Johnson went inside and returned with a kitchen knife. The police say the women argued and Johnson pulled the knife from her waistband and stabbed Gonsalves.

When officers arrived, Gonsalves was lying on the ground as neighbors tried to help her. She was pronounced dead at Kent Hospital.

The case remains under investigation.

Johnson was ordered held without bail after an appearance in Kent County Superior Court on Friday. Her next court appearance will be April 7 for a bail hearing. Johnson faces a first-degree murder charge.

There have been no developments in the case, said Detective Sgt. Mark Bennett of the West Warwick Police Department. Johnson’s case has been referred to a grand jury, Bennett said. It might be months before the grand jury acts.

Relatives say Gonsalves was killed over something that wasn’t even her fight. She and her boyfriend, Jonathan Nucci, had been dating for at least a year and were in love, the family said. Gonsalves often said that when she had children, if they ever asked her to tell them about her first love, she wanted to be able to point to the sofa where Nucci would be sitting. A 2007 graduate of Cranston High School West, Gonsalves had large plans for her future.

She wanted to go to the University of Rhode Island, though she was unsure what she would study. On Monday, she was supposed to start a new job at Sovereign Bank. Instead, she will be buried in the suit her mother bought for her to wear on her first day of work.

An avid singer and dancer, Gonsalves was a contestant in the 2006 Miss Teen USA pageant and sang with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Jazz Ensemble. She modeled for Donahue Model and Talent Agency, appearing in publications for local colleges, doing promotional events for businesses such as Providence Place mall and doing “freeze modeling” — where the subject poses like a mannequin — for art classes at Rhode Island School of Design, said Annette Donahue, owner of the company.

Gathered around the dining room table, everyone has a story to tell about Gonsalves.

Maybelline Duran, an aunt, remembered Gonsalves twirling and dancing in a red and white polka dot dress at Duran’s wedding in 1993. Grandmother Lydia Bermudez remembers when a 3-year-old Gonsalves sang at a special program at church and after the service, Bermudez offered her a piece of candy. Gonsalves refused, Bermudez said in Spanish through her laughter, and said, “This is not a sweet house,” because her mother limited the amount of candy she could have.

Her uncle, Izzy Flores, recalled helping her practice a piano piece. He’d play it fast and Gonsalves would beg for him to slow down. Then he’d play it backward. Finally, he would show Gonsalves which keys to press.

“We went over it 30 times,” Flores said with a smile. “I told her one day she’d get it. Just stay on it and it’ll happen.”

Two nights before she died, Natasha was at the home of her best friend, Dominique Buccafurri, watching movies, eating snacks and laughing. The young women had been inseparable since high school, she said.

Said Buccafurri: “I loved her and she went away too soon.”

tbuford@projo.com