8-month-old girl found unresponsive in Bronx bathtub passes away
CROTONA PARK, Bronx (WABC) -- An 8-month-old baby girl who was found unresponsive in the bathtub of her Bronx apartment earlier this month has died, and the incident has been classified as a homicide.
Authorities say the 23-year-old mother, Emily Ramirez, left her daughter in the bathtub with the water running in her third-floor apartment on Vyse Avenue in Crotona Park, at the Murphy Houses NYCHA complex, around 6:30 p.m. on July 3.
The mother then went to clean the apartment, officials said, and when she returned, Amelia Belle Perez was face down and floating in the bathtub.
EMS rushed the infant to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition, before further transporting her to Montefiore Children's Hospital.
Sadly, she passed away some time Monday, July 15.
"As a mother myself, I know she's going through it, know she's going through it," friend and neighbor Norvella Farrow said as she lit candles at a makeshift memorial. "In a blink of an eye, something could happen. I'm not the judger. She has to live with that herself."
There are no arrests at this time, and the investigation remains ongoing.
"She was very attentive to her baby, never seen her abuse her baby," Farrow said. "She always had her little son, they were very clean. I can't say nothing against her."
The mother had previously been questioned by detectives, but so far, no charges have been filed.
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