Police arrested a Queens mother and charged her with murder in connection with the death of her 5-year-old daughter, a day after police said she called 911 and told them, “I killed my daughter.”
Francis Cabello, 32, was arrested at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, police said. They identified her daughter as Fabiana Cabello. The mother and daughter lived in a two-story house on 110th Street in Richmond Hill where the child was found, according to the girl’s father, Kuldeep Singh, 36.
Police responded to the home just before 7 p.m. Wednesday following the 911 call from Cabello, police said. When they arrived, the young girl was unconscious and bleeding from her nose and mouth. She also had a bruise on her temple, police sources told Gothamist. Emergency services took the girl to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she died, according to police.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine an official cause of death.
Singh, an Uber driver, said that his work kept him from seeing his daughter as much as he wanted, but that she was happy when they were together. On Thursday, before the arrest, he said he had no reason to fear for the girl’s safety when she was with her mother, Cabello, his ex-girlfriend.
“She cared [for] her so much,” he said of Cabello.
It was not immediately clear whether Cabello had an attorney.
Singh showed reporters texts in which he and Cabello worked out buying school supplies for their daughter’s first year of kindergarten.
The girl put in her own requests, too, he said.
“She always called, ‘Papa, I need a pink bag, I need shoes, I need this, I need this,’” Singh said.