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NYTimes
New York Times
27 Dec 2024
Maria Cramer


NextImg:Investigators Using Video Surveillance to Identify Subway Burn Victim

Investigators are using video surveillance, fingerprint technology and DNA evidence to try to identify the woman who was fatally burned by another passenger inside a subway train on Coney Island three days before Christmas, Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said on Friday.

Mr. Gonzalez also said that prosecutors had charged Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, with first-degree murder for the Sunday morning attack. The police said he used a lighter to set the woman’s clothing on fire while she was sleeping on the train at about 7:30 a.m.

She died from the burns and smoke inhalation in a gruesome incident that was recorded on cellphone video, capturing the screams of bystanders and spreading rapidly across social media.

“It’s a priority for me, for my office, for the police department to identify this woman so we can notify her family of what had happened to her,” Mr. Gonzalez said during a news conference on Friday outside of Kings County Supreme Court.

Earlier on Friday, at a brief hearing, prosecutors said that a grand jury had indicted Mr. Zapeta-Calil on Thursday on one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of arson.

Mr. Zapeta-Calil did not appear at the hearing. His lawyer, Andrew G. Friedman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


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