SIX YEARS TO END A MARRIAGE — THEN MONTHS OF ISOLATION BEFORE THE TIMES SQUARE ATTACK

Pamela Cisneros spent years trying to rebuild a life that had already begun to unravel. Then, in a matter of months, everything changed.

Her husband filed for divorce in 2020, beginning a lengthy legal and personal separation that would not officially end until 2025.

Court records and accounts from people close to Pamela paint a complicated picture of the years that followed: financial difficulties, professional setbacks, family tensions and longstanding mental-health struggles.

By the time the divorce was finalized, Pamela was living alone in Queens.

To neighbors, she could still appear ordinary.

To members of her family, however, there were signs that her life had become increasingly isolated.

And after the shocking events of Aug. 31, those earlier details suddenly took on a much darker significance.

A LIFE THAT HAD BECOME INCREASINGLY COMPLICATED

Pamela, 49, had been dealing with mental-health problems for years.

The NYPD said she had two documented mental-health-related encounters with officers before the Times Square attack. PEOPLE reported that one involved a possible suicide attempt. She had no known prior arrest record.

Her family had also witnessed periods of instability.

According to reporting on the case, Pamela’s marriage had broken down, and she had become involved in a custody dispute involving her youngest daughter.

Financial problems added another layer of pressure. The New York Times reported that Pamela and her husband had filed for bankruptcy in 2005, and that the couple later filed for divorce in 2020.

The divorce itself took years to complete.

By 2025, the marriage was finally over.

Pamela was living on her own in Queens.

But the end of the marriage did not mean the end of the problems surrounding her life.

HER FAMILY THOUGHT SHE WAS DOING BETTER

One of the most difficult questions for Pamela’s relatives now is how the woman they believed was improving could ultimately become involved in such a horrifying attack.

Her brother previously described her as receiving treatment and appearing stable.

Her father also remained involved in her life.

That makes the final period before the Times Square attack particularly difficult for those who knew her.

There was no public indication that Pamela was preparing for what would happen in Manhattan on Aug. 31.

And investigators have not publicly established a single motive for the attack.

THEN CAME TIMES SQUARE

Shortly after 4:20 p.m. on Aug. 31, Pamela was in one of the busiest areas of New York City.

Police said she was carrying two knives.

She first attacked a 68-year-old man, later identified as Tak Kam, near Seventh Avenue and West 41st Street.

Roughly 20 seconds later, according to police, she attacked another stranger.

That victim was Erin Piacenti.

She was 32.

And she had only recently become a mother.

Police described the attacks as random and unprovoked.

ERIN PIAcENTI WAS HEADING HOME

Erin had returned to work at Bank of America after several months of maternity leave.

It was her first day back.

She had a five-month-old daughter, Madison, and had recently moved with her husband, Frank, to Chester, New Jersey, where the couple were beginning their life as a family.

Erin was a Bank of America vice president and a graduate of Fordham Law School, where she met her husband.

Her family described her as deeply devoted to her loved ones and an exceptionally accomplished young woman.

Instead of returning home to her husband and baby that afternoon, Erin was rushed to Bellevue Hospital.

She died from her injuries.

THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

After the attacks, Pamela continued along Seventh Avenue before NYPD officers confronted her.

Police said officers repeatedly ordered her to drop the knives.

She refused.

Officers used Tasers in an attempt to stop her.

According to the NYPD account, Pamela then advanced toward officers while still holding the weapons.

Two officers opened fire.

Pamela was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is investigating the police shooting.

The two knives were recovered.

THE QUESTIONS LEFT BEHIND

The Times Square attack lasted only minutes.

But the questions surrounding Pamela Cisneros had been developing for years.

How much did her deteriorating personal circumstances contribute to what happened?

Did her family recognize how serious her condition had become?

And was there anything that could have prevented the events of that Monday afternoon?

Those questions remain unanswered.

What is known is that Pamela had a documented history of mental-health struggles, had experienced major personal and financial difficulties, and was living alone after a divorce that had taken years to finalize.

What is not known is exactly what happened inside her mind during the final days and hours before she walked into Times Square.

There is also no evidence publicly establishing that her divorce or mental-health history directly caused the attack.

For Erin Piacenti’s family, however, the consequences are painfully clear.

A 32-year-old mother who had just returned to work never made it home.

Her five-month-old daughter will grow up without her mother.

And in the aftermath, Pamela Cisneros’s troubled past has become part of a much larger question — not simply about what happened in Times Square, but about what was happening in her life long before she ever arrived there.