Husband Subject of Manhunt After Woman's Body Found

Police are scouring the city for a suspect who is believed to have killed his estranged wife and left her body inside a parking garage in the heart of Manhattan's Lower East Side, police officials said.

The body of Leonida Davila, 39, was found late Tuesday night in the passenger seat of a 2003 Ford Explorer registered to her husband after police received a 911 call reporting a suspicious vehicle inside the municipal parking garage on Essex Street, police officials said.

Police responded to the garage, which is in the center of the neighborhood's popular nightlife district, at about 11:50 p.m. Davila's sprawled body was concealed inside the sport utility vehicle by a sun visor that had been placed in front of the windshield and heavily tinted windows, police said. She had been stabbed multiple times in the head, neck, and body, a spokeswoman for the city's medical examiner said.

Investigators spent much of yesterday hunting for Davila's husband, William Davila, 42, with whom the victim has a well-documented history of domestic violence issues. Police sources said detectives questioned Mr. Davila's mother, who lives several blocks from the parking garage on Rutgers Street.

Mr. Davila pleaded guilty to third-degree assault stemming from an incident that took place at the couple's home in the Bronx last year, officials said. Davila had accused her husband of violently grabbing her by the throat and threatening to kill her, according to court records.

Later that year, Mr. Davila was charged with contempt for allegedly text-messaging his wife moments before she was set to testify against him inside a courtroom, according to court records. The message, which accused Davila of being a liar, was sent despite a court order banning contact between the two, officials said.