ME: 14-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Found Dead On Beach Was Killed
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- An autopsy has determined that a 14-year-old girl whose charred and naked body was found on a Brooklyn beach earlier this year was killed.
Shaniesha Forbes died of "homicidal asphyxiation,'' which includes suffocation and smothering, the medical examiner's office said.
Forbes' body was discovered at the southern end of Gerritsen Avenue in Gerritsen Beach on Jan. 6, two days after she disappeared.
ME: 14-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Found Dead On Beach Was Killed
There were signs of a bonfire about 50 feet from Forbes' body, but it was unclear if it was connected to her death, medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove told The New York Times.
Partially burned clothes, believed to belong to Forbes, were found in nearby bushes, Borakove said.
"Her last Facebook post said she went to the movies with 'Him,' and we don't know who 'him' is," said Kerri-Ann Thomas, Shaniesha's cousin. The family investigated on their own and said the theater had no video of the girl. Turns out the theater keeps surveillance video for only two weeks - they were too late.
Forbes' mother Sandra Pryce joined family members and community leaders Friday afternoon to call on the public's help in catching the teen's killer.
"Whoever saw something...please come forward and say something," Pryce said.
"We need justice," Forbes' cousin said. "Whoever did this is a monster. How could you do that to a 14-year-old girl?"
"We really need anyone who may know anything about this senseless murder to come forward," Community Advocate Tony Herbert said. "If you have information and are holding it, then you are just as guilty as the person or those who committed this heinous crime, so we truly need your help to give this family closure with a serious dose of justice."
"Somone out there knows what happened. They know she went to the movie theater with some guy. Someone should come forward and make this right," said Herbert.
Forbes was a freshman at the Academy for Young Writers in Williamsburg. She lived with her mother and three siblings in East Flatbush.
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