Police Search For Boyfriend In Connection With Murder Of Danielle Thomas Of Astoria

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man is suspected of killing his girlfriend after once threatening to hunt her down, "like a dog in the streets."

Several instances of documented domestic abuse caused Danielle Thomas, 27, to flee her Astoria apartment building, where police found her dead Tuesday night. The big question now is why did she return?

Thomas' apartment on 33rd Street was the scene of a murder investigation on Wednesday. Her boyfriend, 33-year-old lawyer Jason Bohn, is suspected of bludgeoning Thomas and strangling her, police said. Sources told CBS 2 it's believed Bohn has left the state.

The building's superintendent said tenants heard Thomas' screams just before she was killed.

"She's screaming; she's calling for help: 'He's kill me. Somebody help me,'" the superintendent told CBS 2's Amy Dardashtian, describing the screams.

In fact, tenants said they heard her cries often. An order of protection was taken out against Bohn, who recently was arrested for allegedly assaulting Thomas, CBS 2's Sean Hennessey reported.

In a criminal complaint obtained by CBS 2, a police officer detailed the abuse. He wrote that when he responded he saw the bruises from punches, and read the threatening e-mails in which Bohn called Thomas a "whore."

When she went to the 114th Precinct on June 7 for help, police said they heard a message Bohn left on her cell phone that said: "It's war. I'll dedicate my life to hunting you down like a dog in the streets. I am going to make your life impossible."

"Some people did call the police and they came and whatever happened I don't know. I just feel sorry for what happened to her," a tenant said.

Sources said Thomas sought shelter two weeks ago with battered women's organization Safe Horizon. There was also an order of protection in place. No one knows why she came back to the apartment Tuesday night, the spot where Bohn allegedly took her life.

In a scholarship essay online Bohn wrote that his mother abandoned him and his father beat him, later bragging that he had overcome it all and conquered his own violent tendencies.