Authorities Probe Death Of Hamilton Heights Mother, Son
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are investigating after a 36-year-old woman and 4-year-old child were found dead in an apartment in Upper Manhattan early Monday morning.
Police say the 36-year-old woman, identified as Felicia Barahona, was found dead in the living room of an apartment on 153rd Street shortly after 8 a.m. Barahona had an electrical cord wrapped around her neck.
Barahona's son, Miguel Barahona, 4, was upside down with his head submerged in a bathtub, 1010 WINS Andrew Falzone reported.
Police were called to the scene after the superintendent of the building smelled a foul odor and looked through the fire escape into the apartment, where they saw the woman's body.
One neighbor -- who wished to not be identified -- is having a tough time after hearing where the bodies were discovered.
"You never know what happens behind closed doors," she said.
It had been a few days since neighbors had seen the woman and child, WCBS 880's Myles Miller reported.
"She's real nice, she's a nice young girl," one man said.
The apartment building hallway was still decorated for the holiday as the bodies were wheeled out, put into the medical examiner's van, and driven away.
Authorities will now work to determine whether the deaths were the result of a double homicide or a murder-suicide.
Sources told CBS2 Barahona was fired by the Department of Education in 2013 for having a sexual relationship with a high school student while teaching at Dewitt High School in the Bronx. She was not arrested for the relationship.
It is not clear whether or not Miguel was a result of that relationship.
