NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The mother of the 9-year-old girl who was found dead in her family’s Crown Heights apartment Sunday has been charged with her murder, police said Monday.
Shemene Cato, 44, was also charged with manslaughter, assault, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon in connection to Shalom Guifarro's death.
An autopsy revealed Guifarro died of multiple blunt force trauma, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner said.
Guifarro's body was found around 1 p.m. in a bedroom on Lincoln Place near Franklin Avenue with trauma to the back of her head and bite marks on her back, according to police.
Employees from the restaurant downstairs from the apartment, Memphis Seoul, complained to the restaurant’s owner, Bart Hubbuch, of a bad smell. Hubbuch in turn called the super, who discovered the dead child.
Hubbuch said the building’s super went into the apartment and “about 10 minutes later, he came out and he was kind of ashen-faced, and shortly thereafter all of the sudden the police and paramedics came.”
Hubbuch told WABC 7 that the mother was “constantly screaming at those kids all the time.”
“They always looked scared to be honest. We felt bad for them. I think a lot of people in the neighborhood felt bad for them,” Hubbuch said.
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