The drowning death of an 11-month-old Bronx girl last summer has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Friday.
Detectives are now trying to determine who killed Jezeli Maribel, who died Aug. 14 after drowning in the bathtub of her family’s apartment on West Farms Road near Boone Ave. in Crotona Park.
Neighbor Frank DeJesus told the Daily News at the time that the child’s mother, Victoria, ran into the building hallway around 7:40 p.m. with Jezeli’s limp body in her arms, wailing “My baby’s dead!”
“We opened the door and we see that she’s screaming on the floor in the hallway. Our neighbor was holding the baby,” said DeJesus. “The baby was purple.”
DeJesus called 911 and relayed instructions from the operator to neighbors who had rushed to the child’s aid.
“Another neighbor came up and he grabbed the baby, and I was on the phone with 911,” DeJesus recalled. “They were telling me what to do, and I was telling him what to do.”
The baby spit out water as CPR was performed on her but she remained unconscious DeJesus said.
The mother later told police the baby drowned in the bathtub, police sources said. Detectives were investigating whether the mother had left little Jezeli unattended in the tub, a law enforcement source told The News.
Jezeli was a happy and healthy baby girl whose older sisters, ages 2 and 4, doted on her, according to a 65-year-old friend of her mother.
“She had a pretty face,” the friend said. “She looked more like her dad. She has two older sisters and they always played with her. They loved their sister.”
The family had no previous contact with police or the Administration for Children’s Services.