A Bronx woman was arrested on Friday in connection with the deaths of two newborn boys who were discovered behind a Bronx apartment building in the fall of 2020, according to the police.
The woman, Stephanie Castillo, 36, was identified as the mother of the infants, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter. Ms. Castillo was taken into police custody on Friday and charged with murder and manslaughter for her role in her sons’ deaths, the police said.
The arrest on Friday, nearly five years after the newborns were found at the back of an apartment building in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx, is the first step toward a possible resolution in a cold case that has tormented the Police Department.
The chilling case burst into view on the afternoon of Nov. 9, 2020, when police officers arrived at the Bronx building after a 911 call from the property’s superintendent. There, the officers found the boys lying unconscious on the pavement at the back of the apartment complex, wrapped in brown paper, the police said.
Emergency medical workers arrived not long after and took the babies to a nearby hospital, where they were both pronounced dead.
No arrests were made at the time, according to the authorities, but the deaths struck a chord in the community and the Police Department.
In April 2021, nearly six months after the infants were found, the city’s chief medical officer ruled that the deaths had been homicides, the result of blunt force trauma to the head and torso, according to the law enforcement official. The police issued a notice offering a reward of $10,000 paid by the city to anyone who assisted in finding the perpetrator.
For years, no one was arrested.
Last November, detectives and neighbors in the community held a vigil in honor of the boys, the latest in what had become an annual tradition. As always, the police exhorted the public to provide any information that might lead to an arrest.
Eight months later, on Friday, the police made that arrest.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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