Daughter of Randall's Island beating victim says mom had to be resuscitated, undergoing surgery

A file photo of Randalls Island where a woman was brutally beaten.

The daughter of a woman who was brutally beaten on Randall's Island said her mother had to be resuscitated on Wednesday during surgery and is undergoing another dangerous surgery on Thursday.

The woman, identified by her family as 44-year-old Diana Agudela, was riding an e-bike on her usual route back to Astoria from her job at a Manhattan museum on Friday night when she was attacked around 11:30 p.m. Police said a man walking his dog discovered her six hours later.

Agudela’s daughter, Stephanie Rodas, said her mother was unrecognizable in the hospital because of severe swelling and bruises on her face. In an interview with Gothamist, she said Agudela suffered multiple skull fractures and brain hemorrhaging. She underwent brain surgery Wednesday to remove parts of her skull in order to relieve the swelling, Rodas said through tears.

Agudela was having more parts of her skull removed on Thursday and doctors told Rodas her mother may not survive.

“ I would want everyone to hold her mom tight tonight because I won't be able to hug my mom and hold her tight tonight,” Rodas said. “I would appreciate it if everyone did that for me.”

The NYPD is asking the public to help find the person or people who attacked Agudela. There are no surveillance cameras on the bike path, making it even harder to identify whoever is responsible, police said.

Rodas urged the city to install more safety measures on Randall’s Island.

“ We need more protection, we need more lights,” she said. “It is ridiculous that the park that my mom would ride from to go from work to home had no lights and no cameras.”

“She really didn’t deserve this,” Agudela's mother-in-law Elva Montoya told Gothamist by phone on Thursday. “It hit me like a bucket of cold water.”

“ They told me that last night she reacted a little bit – she was raising her arms as if she was in a lot of pain,” Montoya said. “So they gave her more medication.”

Police officials said that they were still investigating a motive for Agudela's beating, and said she was found missing her e-bike and backpack, which contained personal belongings.

Officials said the evidence so far suggested that Agudela did not know her attacker, but added that they were not ruling anything out.

The NYPD has not said if sexual assault was involved, but the investigation is still in its early stages.

Rodas said police also collected DNA evidence from under her mom’s fingernails.

“ Because they believed that she did fight back,” she said.

Felony assaults – defined as the kinds of serious attacks that can permanently injure someone – are one of the only serious crime categories that have risen across New York City over the last several years.

According to police data, felony assaults reached a 25-year high in 2024, with more than 29,000 reported incidents. They have ticked up slightly so far this year, and experts say the increase among these attacks – especially when the perpetrator is a stranger – are a major driver of perceptions that New York City isn’t safe, despite continued declines in murders and shootings.

Montoya said Agudela moved to New York City from Pereira, Colombia more than 20 years ago to seek a better future with her new husband. She’d been pregnant with her son at the time.

“She is such a hard worker, and a good mother,” Montoya said. “She was a defenseless person who was leaving tired from work, coming back to her kids. We hope police find [the suspect]... they have to pay for what they did.”