The mother of an 11-year-old girl found dead in her bed confessed Sunday to beating her daughter with a mop handle and leaving her to die in their East New York apartment.
Florencia Vazquez, 36, told cops she hit her daughter, Alejandra, in the head so hard that the wooden mop handle broke in two. The mother taped the handle back together but never called for help as her daughter lay dying, the Daily News reported.
Vazquez, a mother of five, said she "despised everything connected to her ex-husband," who is the girl's biological father, cops said.
The girl lived in the third-floor Atlantic Ave. apartment with her mother, her mother's boyfriend and their three other children. It was unclear how long she had been dead.
Police say Alejandra Vazquez was discovered Sunday morning in Brooklyn. The girl had suffered blows to her head and torso.
The medical examiner is trying to determine what killed her.
The other children appear to be unharmed.
Local
A landlord who visited the apartment a few days ago to check on the heat says he hadn't noticed anything wrong.
The city's child welfare agency is investigating.
