Descanse en Paz

Peace! Paz!

I wanted to send my eternal positive thought and meditation to my sister- 'Queen True Reality Earth', of Now Justice (New Jersey), rest in peace- descanse en paz. As well as my condolences to her physical family, of Ecuador. She has recently transitioned and succumbed to the evils of domestic abuse, and unfortunately by someone who 'claimed' to be "righteous". Unfortunately, the truth is that the effects of colonialization are still ingrained in many of us, in varying degrees. Despite this, violence, especially against our women and children, is inexcusable and unacceptable.

Murdered woman's life, pain recalled
BY ED BEESON AND HEATHER APPEL

RANDOLPH — Josephine Hoppe feared for her daughter's future whenever she saw the bruises left by the man Maria Hoppe called the love of her life.

"She always came back with finger marks around her neck, and I told her, 'One of these days, you're not going to get up,' " said Josephine Hoppe, the mother of the 26-year-old Randolph woman whose body was found this week inside a Paterson apartment.

A mother's warning didn't convince Maria Hoppe to leave.

Maria Hoppe returned to the Paterson home of Randy Martin, her boyfriend and father of her two small children. It was here where police investigators said she met her end. Some three weeks after authorities said they believed she was killed, Hoppe's body was discovered Tuesday stuffed in a plastic garbage bag inside Martin's 12th Avenue apartment. Martin, a 37-year-old ex-convict, was arrested by Paterson police officers Tuesday and charged with murder. He is being held in Passaic County Jail in Paterson on $1 million bail.

Shortly after Josephine and Fernando Hoppe returned to their Morris County home on Thursday from the Norman Dean Home for Services in Denville that is handling Maria Hoppe's funeral on Saturday, her parents spoke to reporters for the first time about their daughter's death.

Her parents, natives of Ecuador, spoke in Spanish longingly for their 4-foot-11 daughter and spitefully of the man who authorities said took her life. When a friend brought them a framed photo of Maria Hoppe, her father touched it, turned and let out a mournful wail, which echoed across the hilly apartment complex where they live.

The Hoppes said they felt their daughter was headed for disaster in a relationship they felt powerless to stop.

They recalled their daughter as a bright child who played piano and danced to the Latin American rhythms of cumbia.

She grew into a romantic young woman and wrote poetry to express her feelings, Josephine Hoppe said. Her parents, who had longed for a daughter, nicknamed Maria "pequeña flor," Spanish for "little flower."

As a student at Randolph High School, Maria Hoppe decided to become a psychologist.

Her goals changed after she graduated, but she always had a career in mind.

She chased a series of degrees and training certificates from area community colleges: In business and then computing. At the time of her death, Maria Hoppe was a month shy of completing a degree in massage therapy at Dover Business College, her family said.

Maria Hoppe's relationship with Martin began five years ago when she met him while working at an office in Fairfield, her mother said. It was not clear whether Martin worked with her.

Josephine Hoppe said her concerns about the relationship mounted right away. She began to notice bruises appearing on her daughter's body, but Maria Hoppe always told her mother that the marks were an accident. Maria Hoppe was otherwise reluctant to talk about her relationship with Martin, her family said.

Nevertheless, family members said they saw what was happening.

"He was cruel. He always hit her," her father, Fernando Hoppe, said. "He turned her green, brown, blue."

There were moments when she seemed at peace. "But that was when he was in jail," Josephine Hoppe said.

Maria Hoppe stayed in the relationship with Martin. They had two children: a daughter, Jewel, now 2 years old, and a son, Zahir, who was born in January. Family photos show Maria Hoppe beaming as she held Jewel. Her son's birth invigorated her as well, her family said.

"I never saw her look so beautiful," a cousin, Jessica Hoppe, said, recalling the days after Zahir's birth. "She was glowing."

The state Division of Youth and Family Services twice intervened and took custody of the children, according to the family. Jewel and Zahir are now in the care of Josephine and Fernando Hoppe.

Maria Hoppe's final days remain mostly a mystery. She left her parent's home for the last time on May 13. Two weeks later, Josephine Hoppe said she had her last telephone conversation with her daughter.

On May 28, a state Superior Court judge in Morris County signed an order against Martin, forcing him to pay $150 a week in child support, plus $966 in arrears, court records show. The Morris County Office of Temporary Assistance had filed the child support lawsuit on behalf of Maria Hoppe, according to the court. The family reported Maria Hoppe missing to authorities on June 10.

Her relationship with Martin evidently took a toll on her mind, too, according to the family.

"Love is pain and suffering, she used to say," Josephine Hoppe said. "She said, 'You'll care for people, but you will never know love, because love is pain.' "

Her daughter's words stunned her mother. "I said, 'If that's love, then I don't want to know love,' " Josephine Hoppe said.

E-mail: beeson@northjersey.com and Heather Appel at appelh@northjersey.com

Original article: http://www.northjersey.com/news/northernnj/No_Title_-_MARIA0620TR.html?c=y&page=1