BY SARAH ARMAGHAN, FRANK LOMBARDI AND WIL CRUZ
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Tuesday, March 2nd 2010, 4:00 AM
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Detectives were grilling a Bronx woman on Monday night in the murder of her common-law husband, who was discovered bound and smothered just hours after they fought, police sources said.
Melissa Pastrana, 29, was questioned after Michael Ruiz's body was found slumped on their living room floor Sunday night, sources said.
"In the apartment is the body of an individual, a pillow case over his head," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "His hands and feet are tied with duct tape."
A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office said Ruiz died of "compression of the neck and smothering."
Pastrana called police Sunday morning to claim the 36-year-old Ruiz was beating her.
It was unclear if Ruiz - who was gone by the time cops arrived - actually had hit Pastrana. She had filed six orders of protection against him in the past.
About 10:30 Sunday night, cops responding to a report of a robbery found the door at the couple's Trinity Ave. apartment ajar and Ruiz dead inside.
Pastrana and the couple's two young children were not home.
"The ... detectives are talking to the woman who lives in the apartment," Kelly said.
No one has been arrested.
Neighbors said Ruiz grew up in Morrisania.
"I'm so in shock. I just saw him," said a neighbor who claimed to have seen Ruiz just an hour before cops found his body. "I was the last person to see him alive."
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