ASIA PEREZ-MEDINA - 2 yo - New Paltz, NY

Toddler's death in New Paltz ruled a homicide; police ID her as Asia Perez-Medina, a Dominican citizen (video)

Published: Friday, June 22, 2012

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — Police on Thursday said the 2-year-old girl who
died the previous day in New Paltz was killed by blunt force trauma, and
they declared the case a homicide.

The New Paltz Police
Department said the conclusion was reached after an autopsy was
performed by Dr. Michael Sikirica, though Police Chief Joseph Snyder
said investigators still were not sure what was used to inflict the
trauma.

“At this point ... we’re in the process of furthering the
investigation to see exactly how that trauma was caused,” he said
Thursday afternoon at a police command post across the street from where
the girl was found.

Synder identified the dead girl as Asia
Perez-Medina, and his department issued a press release Thursday evening
that said she was a citizen of the Dominican Republic who was staying
with relatives locally at the time of her death.

Snyder said the girl’s aunt and uncle, whose last name is Perez, live in
the house at 332 state Route 32 North in New Paltz where Asia was found
dead but that he did not know who owns the house.

Synder said investigators were pursuing multiple leads, but police had not announced
any arrest in the case as of 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

“We’re interviewing several people,” the chief said. “The majority of the work
is being conducted (by) the forensics unit from the New York State
Police, and that could take some time to get some of the results back,
but … we’re just following up on several leads, and we have many
interviews taking place.”

Police responded to the Route 32 house about noon Wednesday and later announced that a 2-year-old girl had died there.

“We were called around 12 (noon) for a missing child, and when we arrived, we found a member of the family with the child, and the rescue (squad) was called,” Snyder said at the scene on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the chief said the child was with the aunt and uncle when police arrived.

“They reported her missing to 911 just prior to the police arriving, and when police got here, she was located just prior to police arriving by the aunt and uncle,” Snyder said.

The chief said he knew of no previous problems at the house.

“There’s nothing to our knowledge or any complaints we’ve ever received,” he said.

At the house on Thursday, furniture and trash bags were strewn across the
lawn as investigators continued going in and out of the structure.

About 3:30 p.m., a large number if state police investigators and members of
the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the command post.

They then spread out around a vacant former tavern across the street,
combing through bushes next to the structure and a wooded area behind it.


http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2012/06/22/news/doc4fe349ec09f9f372142376.txt?viewmode=fullstory