The woman left clinging to life from a vicious beating on Randalls Island was robbed of the e-bike she was riding home from work — and will never fully recover if she manages to survive, her devastated daughter said Wednesday.
Victim Diana Agudelo, 44, was biking home from her job as a custodian at the Museum of the City of New York in East Harlem around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, taking her usual route through Randalls Island as a shortcut to her apartment in Astoria, Queens, her daughter said. She never made it home and the next time her family saw her she was in a medically induced coma at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens.
The hardworking single mother had attended a Shakira concert at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey the night before the attack.
“She was so swollen you couldn’t even recognize her. I didn’t even recognize my own mother when I saw her,” daughter Stephanie Rodas, 21, told the Daily News in an exclusive interview. “Her eye was black, pitch-black. When you opened her eye, it was bloodshot red. She couldn’t even move. She couldn’t talk. She was on life support. She was a bloody mess.”
NYPD detectives are trying to get any information they can about the attack on the small island between East Harlem and Astoria Park, which occurred in a dead zone where there are no surveillance cameras. On Tuesday they released a photo of the victim without naming her, asking anyone to come forward who may know anything about what happened to her. No arrests have been made.
On Wednesday afternoon, Rodas waited anxiously for doctors to complete surgery on her mother’s brain to remove part of her skull to decrease swelling.
Doctors told the family Agudelo could “succumb to her injuries at any time,” Rodas said. Even if all goes well, Agudelo will lose all or most of her ability to move the right side of her body and will be blind in the top of her right eye, doctors told the family.
“She will have memory issues. We don’t know what we she will remember. There’s a possibility that she could forget about me,” Rodas said, breaking down in tears. “She won’t be able to work. She won’t be able to go back to having a normal life. She would have to need government assistance and will have to need someone there with her 24 hours.”
First responders found Agudelo lying near a bike path by E. 125th St. and Rivers Edge Road. Medics rushed her to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where she remains in critical condition and has not regained consciousness.
“If I could describe her, I would just say being around her was like eating a cupcake. It was so sweet, it would make you feel warm and good inside,” Rodas said. “She went out of her way to make sure that everyone had a smile on their face.”
“She would go to church every Sunday,” she added. “She was such a caring person that I know that if she was awake right now, she would forgive the person who did this to her. That was just the type of person she was. … She always, always told me that it’s not good to hold grudges, that sometimes people do things, because you don’t know their motive, you don’t know their backstory.”
Agudelo was born and raised in Pereira, Colombia, and immigrated to New York in her early 20s, looking for economic opportunity.
“She did the best that she could as a single mother,” Rodas said. “She was working very hard for me and my brother — which is why she would come home so late, because she would do overtime to be able to afford us going to college and pay off the rent.”
“My mom came here for a better life,” she added. “She didn’t come here to have her life ruined or taken away from her.”
Police believe Agudelo traveled over the Wards Island Bridge at E. 103rd St. and was heading toward the Triborough Bridge when she was jumped on Randalls Island.
“It was the fastest way,” Rodas said of her mother’s route. “If you went by bike, it was like only 25 minutes. The train ride was almost an hour.”
In addition to her e-bike being apparently stolen during the attack, Rodas said her jacket, backpack with her wallet inside and glasses were all missing after the attack. One of her black Skechers sneakers was found in a trash can near the scene, cops told the family.
Agudelo lives a few blocks away from the Queens side of the Triborough Bridge with her 22-year-old son and Rodas, who is still in disbelief over the attack.
“What type of animal would even do this? I don’t even think an animal would do this. It’s just so inhumane. That was my mom. I know my mom, she wouldn’t fight back. If someone wanted to steal her bike, she would have given it. She never fought back,” Rodas said, getting choked up.
Diana Agudelo, 44, her daughter Stephanie Rodas, 21. (Obtained by Daily News)”Being able to leave my mom on the floor like that, bleeding by herself in the cold? They took her jacket. It’s just like, Why? You got the bike, you got everything. My mom didn’t deserve this.”
Rodas is studying forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan and is in her final week of the semester. She has been at her mother’s hospital bed around the clock since the attack.
“It’s crazy because this week I have my finals,” Rodas said. “How can I even focus on that? How can I even function with all this going on? My mom was supposed to see me graduate next year and now I don’t even know if she’s going to be there.”
Rodas last spoke to her mother on FaceTime just hours before the attack. Rodas’ boyfriend was also on the call.
“It’s just so crazy how life changes,” Rodas said. “She was so happy. She was smiling. She was showing me and my boyfriend off to her co-workers — she was just showing everyone.”
Agudelo’s co-workers have created a GoFundMe that has quickly raised more than $7,500 for her continued medical care.
“We have never seen your mom not smile, other than today,” Rodas said co-workers told the family when they visited Agudelo in the hospital.
“She wasn’t smiling because she’s unconscious,” Rodas said.
Anyone with information on the attack is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Originally Published: May 21, 2025 at 4:48 PM EDT
