![The casket containing Myls Dobson at his funeral at First Corinthian Church in Harlem on January 21, 2014.](http://assets.dnainfo.com/generated/photo/2014/01/myls-dobson-1390352194221.JPG/larger.jpg)
MIDTOWN — Myls Dobson, the 4-year-old boy starved and tortured in a Manhattan luxury high-rise over the Christmas holiday, died of child abuse syndrome, including dehydration, the city Medical Examiner ruled Thursday.
The death was ruled a homicide by the ME, clearing the way for the Manhattan District Attorney's office to charge Kryzie King, 28, with murder. Prosecutors declined to comment on Thursday, but in a past court appearance Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg promised to upgrade the charges.
Dobson was left in the care of King after his father, Okee Wade, was arrested on an outstanding warrant in connection to a bank fraud case.
King claimed to want to show the boy the love his parents never did, but grew more and more abusive toward the boy between Dec. 17 and Jan. 8, when she claimed to have found Myls unresponsive in the apartment's bathtub.
In a handwritten confession filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, King admitted to repeatedly beating the boy with a belt, burning him with a hot oven rack and leaving him outdoors in frigid temperatures in his underwear.
King's lawyer Bryan Konoski did not comment on the ME's ruling, but expressed disappointment with the District Attorney's office for not updating him on the progress in the case.