A New York woman who drowned her 6-year-old daughter on Friday allegedly said she did so while baptizing her.
Madelyn Tavarez was discovered submerged in the bathtub at her family’s residence in Brooklyn. According to sources cited by the New York Post, indications of blood clots in Tavarez’s eyes imply that there was a struggle with her mother, Karla Espinal, 26, who stands accused of the crime.
Sources said Espinal kept her daughter underwater for 20 minutes. According to prosecutors, Espinal claimed she was “baptizing” her daughter.
A neighbor told The New York Times that Friday, when Tavarez was found dead, was the second time cops were seen at the home.
Espinal is charged with felony assault and reckless endangerment. The charges could be upgraded depending on what an autopsy shows.
The victim’s father informed law enforcement that he had seen his daughter alive just an hour before the incident. The New York Times obtained messages that the father had sent to his employer on Friday, explaining his absence from work due to the tragic loss of his daughter.
“I’m going crazy,” the father said in the messages which were in Spanish. “I’m here until God gives a miracle. I don’t know what to do.”
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