Officers from the NYPD's 75th Precinct found Karen Ashley, 45, in her 2004 Nissan Maxima just before midnight Tuesday. The car was parked outside of a 1473 Blake Ave. apartment where she was staying. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have charged the husband, Beresford Ashley, 55, with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. According to authorities, he lives at 501 East 93rd St.

Dianne Russel, who identified herself as a friend whom the victim was living with since March, says Ashley and her husband were having marital issues.

Russel says her friend frantically called her late Tuesday night, disturbed that her husband had appeared at the hospital where she worked as a nurse. She says she stayed on the phone with Ashley as security staff escorted her to her car without incident. 

But Russel says she received another chilling phone call -- apparently moments before Ashley's slaying -- in which the victim said her husband was inside her car on Blake Avenue.

Russel claims to have gone outside after receiving this call and see the husband get in his own car and drive away.

Police say Beresford Ashley turned himself in earlier in the day. They initially wanted him for questioning as a person of interest. He was taken to Methodist Hospital for a laceration on his hand.

The husband did not say anything as police escorted him out of the precinct building.