Long Island man killed estranged wife with lethal cyanide mixture that ‘seared her lungs:’ DA

A Long Island creep “lay in wait” for his estranged wife and killed her inside her home with a lethal cyanide mix that “seared her lungs,” Nassau County prosecutors said Thursday.

Asif Qureshi, 53, busted into his former home in Herrick after Aleena Asif left to drop the couple’s kids off at school on Oct. 17, then jumped from the shadows and suffocated her by putting a rag soaked in cyanide and sulfuric to her mouth when she returned, prosecutors said.

“This is one of the most horrifying cases I have ever seen in my career, 36 years as a prosecutor,” Nassau DA Anne Donnelly told reporters. “This man, this defendant, snuck into his former house where his former wife that he was separated from was living.

“He waited for her, waited until the children went to school and she came back and poisoned her with cyanide, which is an awful and horrific way to die,” Donnelly said. “Basically, he seared her lungs, you know, she took a breath and the cyanide just burns your lungs.”

She said there were sulfuric acid burns on Asif’s face, suggesting he allegedly also used the acid.

Donnelly said Qureshi, an out of work software engineer, “left her body for their children to gruesomely discover.”

Prosecutors said the day began innocently enough, with the couple’s 18-year-old daughter leaving the Larch Drive home for college around 7 a.m. that day.

Around 7:53 a.m., the 46-year-old mom left the house to drop off their 14-year-old son at school, taking their 7-year-old daughter with her. Qureshi, wearing a dark hooded jacket and lugging a red-and-white tote back, took the opportunity to break into the house and wait for his wife to return.

Asif returned around 8 a.m. with the younger child, unaware that her crazed ex was in the house.

About 50 minutes Asif left again with the girl, this time to walk her to school.

The mom returned home around 9 a.m., and was never seen alive again, prosecutors said.

Qureshi left the house around 10:50 a.m. with the duffle bag, walked down the street to a scooter tied to a telephone, got on and rode off toward his own home in Bellerose, the DA’s office said.

The oldest daughter received a phone call that afternoon telling her that their mother never showed up to pick up her little sister at school — sending cops to the family home, where Asif was found lying face down on her bed with “red facial burns” around her mouth.

Police tied Qureshi to the scene thanks to surveillance video footage, and arrested him on Oct. 23.

On Thursday, he was arraigned on murder and burglary charges and ordered held without bail pending a return court appearance on Feb. 18.

His lawyer, Stanley Rubin, declined to discuss the case outside the courthouse.

“I appreciate your interest in the case,” Rubin told The Post. “It’s not going to be tried on the sidewalk. It’s going to be tried in the courtroom, where he’s presumed to be innocent by operation of law.”