A Mount Vernon woman and her uncle were embroiled in a fight over ownership of their home when he allegedly shot her to death in the Bronx.
The fight first led to Julia Anderson’s arrest last year after Michael Foster claimed that she had forged his name on a deed for the family’s home at 18 Bell Avenue. And when that criminal case was dropped months later she sued Westchester County in federal court, alleging malicious prosecution by the county District Attorney’s Office.
Late on Tuesday night, July 14, as Anderson was approaching her car after leaving a group home where she worked, she was shot multiple times at Murdock and Nereid avenues by a man who then drove off on a moped.
Foster, 58, was arrested the following night on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon and is expected to be arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court on Thursday.
The shooting occurred half a mile from the family’s home, at the end of a dead-end street near the Bronx border.
It is still listed on the Mount Vernon assessment roll as owned by Aston and Icilda Foster, who bought it in 1978. They were Michael Foster’s parents and Anderson’s maternal grandparents. Aston Foster died at the age of 76 in 2005 and Icilda three years ago when she was 82.
Westchester land records show that in 2017, Icilda deeded the home to Michael Foster, Anderson and Beverley Foster, Anderson’s mother. Another deed filed last year listed all three as the owners with language that the new deed “reflects an internal agreement among the listed parties to formalize and reaffirm legal ownership while removing previous record holders.”
It was that deed that led to a misdemeanor charge in April 2025 accusing Anderson of forging the signatures of her uncle and mother. The criminal case was dropped in late summer.
In her pro se federal lawsuit filed in October, Anderson faulted the prosecutor and two DA investigators for pursuing a criminal case against her “not through evidence or probable cause but through the unvetted statements of a known felon with a violent criminal history and a personal vendetta.”
Westchester court records show Foster pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1991 after initially being charged with murder in the 1988 fatal shooting of Calvin Reed in Mount Vernon. He was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Exclusive| Fight over Mount Vernon home deed ended with fatal shooting
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
