found unresponsive at a bus shelter<\/a> on Pittsburgh\u2019s South Side on March 2 and died later that day. The initial investigation was handled by Port Authority police. <\/p>\nThree days before her death, Michel had been released from a six-month stay in the Washington County Jail after misdemeanor charges against her were dropped. <\/p>\n
Due to an ICE detainer on her file, she was transferred to the South Side, booked into the agency\u2019s Alternatives to Detention program and released.<\/p>\n
Reporting by Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 revealed Michel spent more than 30 hours at the bus shelter after her release.<\/p>\n
ICE officials said she was released with a charged phone and a program ankle monitor.<\/p>\n
“They give her a cellphone. It\u2019s been sitting in jail property for months. Who knows if it\u2019s charged or if it even still works? So, who is she going to call and how? She didn\u2019t speak the language. Educational, psychiatric barriers, summer clothes in February. It all adds up to someone who dies of exposure,” Attorney Joseph Murphy, with the Allegheny Immigration Group, told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 in July. <\/p>\n
Murphy said that Michel had been diagnosed with psychosis and had undergone multiple psychological evaluations during her time in jail.<\/p>\n
“This woman had a serious mental illness,” Murphy said. “They could have easily called her brother. After she died, people did. Why not before?”<\/p>\n
Medical Examiner Ruled Death Homicide<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh\u2019s Action News 4 reached out to ICE with questions after receiving the medical examiner\u2019s report in June. <\/p>\n
Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis provided the following statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cICE had NOTHING to do with this woman\u2019s death. She passed away THREE days after ICE encountered her.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing her arrest by local authorities for Terroristic Threats and Harassment, Daphy Michel, an illegal alien from Haiti, was encountered by ICE and placed in removal proceedings. ICE issued her an ICE ankle monitor and she was released from ICE custody on February 27. She was released with all of her belongings, including a fully charged phone, in sunny weather in the middle of Pittsburgh, where public transport is readily available.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll illegal aliens who are processed have access to phones to call family, friends, and attorneys.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn March 3, ICE received a notification that her ankle monitor had been tampered with. ICE officers traveled to her last known location on the GPS system: the county medical office. Upon arrival, local staff refused to cooperate or even talk with ICE federal law enforcement officials. Our officers instead had to call the US Marshal\u2019s service, who were let into the building and were given the severed ankle monitor. However, staff refused to even tell the U.S. Marshals about the individual\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cICE was never given official notification of her passing and found out about her death via the media thanks to the local county\u2019s refusal to even have a conversation with federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor any further questions regarding Ms. Michel\u2019s death, we will refer you to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investigation into the death of a Haitian asylum seeker found at Pittsburgh bus stop ongoing, DA says ALLEGHENY…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[900,894,62202,116551,95176,81128,116558,11533,63210,116555,4329,111,116557,81132,95125,5129,69190,63212,116552,1021,116554,95391,10892,69192,2008,4528,73,2195,75,74,12060,116556,116553,1944,4602,95123],"class_list":["post-278414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-action-news","tag-allegheny-county","tag-allegheny-county-district-attorney","tag-alternatives-to-detention","tag-ankle-monitor","tag-bus-shelter","tag-bus-shelter-michel","tag-da","tag-daphy-michel","tag-daphy-michel-death","tag-day","tag-death","tag-early-march","tag-haitian-asylum-seeker","tag-homicide-ruling","tag-hypothermia","tag-ice-custody","tag-ice-detainer","tag-immigration-case","tag-investigation","tag-joseph-murphy","tag-lauren-bis","tag-medical-examiner","tag-michel","tag-office","tag-phone","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-bus","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-port-authority-police","tag-program-ankle-monitor","tag-psychiatric-evaluations","tag-release","tag-south-side","tag-washington-county-jail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kalea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788469929_708_b4b63f68-33d8-4f90-870e-aa6060f8ddaa_1780432158.file.png\")
<\/a>ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. \u2014<\/p>\n