News 4’s Erica Byfield reports.
A mother in the Bronx was arrested and charged with murdering her young daughter nearly a year after the 6-year-old girl was found dead in the family's home, according to police.
Lynija Eason Kumar was charged Thursday with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Jalayah Eason at their 12th-floor apartment in Morrisania, police said.
On May 26, 2023, officers found the young girl unconscious and unresponsive in the home on East 165th Street and Tinton Avenue after they got a frantic call from the mother, saying her daughter was not breathing and was cold to the touch. She said she had been trying to give the girl CPR, according to police.
EMS responded to the scene and raced Jalayah to the hospital, but she did not survive.
After an investigation, detectives told NBC New York the young girl had a rash and bruising on her wrists and other parts of her body.
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Attorney information for Kumar — who also has two other children, an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old — was not immediately clear.
Neighbors who live in the same complex said they saw Kumar often, saying she was a regular on the playground with her kids. The described her as warm, friendly and on occasion they'd see her taking her kids to school.
