Body Pulled From Mississippi River Was Woman Who Abandoned Baby In NYC Subway Station
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A woman who was charged with abandoning her baby in a Manhattan subway station in 2014 has been found dead in the Mississippi River in St. Louis.
Authorities aren't sure why 22-year-old Frankea Dabbs was in St. Louis, where she had no known connection. Her body was found in the river on April 27. Firefighters used a boat to pull the remains to shore.
The St. Louis Medical Examiner's office identified Dabbs through fingerprints, chief medical investigator Rose Psara said Tuesday. A cause of death has not been determined and may take weeks, Psara said. Police and the medical examiner's office labeled the death "suspicious.''
"It's certainly not a natural death to be found in the river,'' Psara said.
Dabbs had been living in Opa-locka, Florida, near Miami, St. Louis police said.
In 2014, Dabbs was arrested on charges of child abandonment and acting in a manner injurious to a child. Police said she pushed a baby's stroller from a No. 1 train onto a platform at the Columbus Circle station, then got back on the train, leaving the then 10-month-old girl behind.
Another woman found the baby girl alone on the platform, still strapped into her stroller and holding a bottle. The woman waited for someone to return and when no one did, she told a subway worker who called police.
She pleaded guilty to child abandonment in June and was sentenced to jail, though it wasn't immediately clear when she was released.
At the time of her arrest, Dabbs told authorities she was homeless and felt she could no longer take care of the little girl. Dabbs said at the time she was from North Carolina and had only recently come to New York. She said the girl's father died in California.
"She felt she couldn't take care of the baby and thought she was leaving her in a safe public space," NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said at the time.
The baby was examined at a hospital and doctors found no apparent signs of trauma. She was placed in the care of the city's Administration for Children's Services.
Authorities were notified of Dabbs' whereabouts after the incident by someone who recognized her from photos and video police released showing a woman pushing the child through a subway turnstile gate.
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