Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Beaten Bronx Toddlers Died of Internal Bleeding, NYPD Says

By  Kate Pastor and Janon Fisher | July 12, 2017 3:58pm 

 Olivia Gee, 2, and Micha Gee, 3, died within minutes of each others.
Olivia Gee, 2, and Micha Gee, 3, died within minutes of each others.
View Full Caption
Facebook

KINGSBRIDGE — The Bronx sibling toddlers who were fatally beaten Monday morning in what police originally believed was a deadly asthma attack, died of organ failure after suffering massive internal bleeding, police said.

“These two children were beaten about the body and because of that they had organ failure and they bled to death. Both children,” Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said Wednesday.

He said that investigators are trying to piece together a timeline of what happened to 2-year-old Olivia and her brother 3-year-old Micha Gee, but the mother and her boyfriend appear to be the chief suspects.

"We only have two people involved here," Boyce said.

Initially, police believed that the two died from an acute asthma attack in their Van Cortlandt Park South apartment, but after the autopsy found bruising on both children and organ failure due to blood loss, the case was deemed a homicide.

Police interrogated the boyfriend and he gave investigators "a very literate narrative," according to the chief. He told police he discovered the two struggling for breath in their crib at 1:30 a.m. They were taken to Montefiore Medical Center where they were pronounced dead within minutes of each other.

There was a brief interview with the mother, but she is currently in the hospital for "obvious distress" following her children's death.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded that both children died from blunt force trauma in what the office ruled as a homicide.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that police and the Administration of Children's Services will continue to investigate the toddlers' deaths.