3-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Kyrah Martin Found Dead In Snow After Apparently Falling Off Roof
A 3-year-old Brooklyn girl died just before Christmas when she ventured up to the roof of her building Wednesday and tumbled four stories to her death.
Kyrah Martin's broken body was found facedown in the snow at 1:15 a.m. as the rooftop alarm in the Crown Heights building blared.
"There's one set of footprints in the snow on the roof," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "The baby tragically fell off the roof."
Kyrah's mom, 35-year-old Nefertiti Martin, had gone to sleep with her four kids in the same bed, said the dead girl's grandmother, Nadine Martin.
Nefertiti Martin was awakened early yesterday by cops who were searching apartments, trying to find where the dead girl lived.
The mother assured the officers her four children were snug in bed, even lifting up the covers, the grandmother said.
"One, two, three ...," Nefertiti Martin counted out loud - stopping when she realized the little girl she had nicknamed "Mikey," after the ever-hungry kid in the Life cereal commercial, was gone.
"Oh my God! Where's my daughter?" the shocked mother wailed, Nadine Martin said, recalling what her daughter told her. "Kyrah! Kyrah! Kyrah!"
Police concluded Kyrah's death was accidental, but the Department of Homeless Services is investigating.
Kyrah's family had just been placed in the 21-unit building on Park Place on Tuesday, Nadine Martin said.
"If you put families in places like this ... it should be safe," Nadine Martin said, with tears welling in her eyes during what should be a joyous time of year.
"The pain and the hurt will never leave her," Nadine Martin said, noting her daughter lost another child four years ago after it was born prematurely with respiratory problems.
Police said Kyrah sneaked out of the apartment shortly after midnight. At 12:45 a.m., Kyrah was caught on videotape climbing the stairs "to the roof door," Kelly said.
"It shows the baby leaving the apartment by herself," he said of the video. "The roof is alarmed. Baby opens the roof door and sets off the alarm."
Then Kyrah vanished from view.
The alarm did not rouse Kyrah's mom, but another fourth-floor resident, James Morrison, 56, said it sounded "like an air raid."
Morrison marveled that Kyrah was able to get the rooftop door open. "It's a heavy steel door," he said. "I don't understand how a 3-year-old could get out."
Building super Desmond Bain, who saw the video, said nobody stopped Kyrah from reaching the roof.
"You can see the little girl on the tape walking up the stairs to the roof," he said. "She was alone when she went up there, but that's all you can see."
Bryant Eason, a father of a 5-year-old girl, placed a toy on the spot where Kyrah landed - and where some of the snow was still stained with her blood.
"I can't imagine losing my baby like that," said Eason, 48. "Three years old? With Christmas two days away? That's so, so sad."
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Sources: NY Daily News, Google Maps
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