9-Year-Old Girl Found Dead With Head Trauma, Bite Marks In NYC Apartment

A 9-year-old girl in New York City has been found dead in her apartment with head injuries and bite marks on her body.

The child, identified as Shalom Guifarro, was found dead in her bedroom Sunday when emergency officers arrived at an apartment in Crown Heights in the Bronx. The deputies responded to the scene after employees at a restaurant downstairs complained about a foul smell emanating from the house, NY Post reported.

The investigators have not determined the exact cause of the child's death and no arrests have been made. However, they confirmed that Guifarro had bite marks on her back and injuries to the head.

The victim, along with her mother and younger sister, has been living in the apartment for the past two years, reports said. It is not clear where the mother and sister were when investigators found the child's body.

Bart Hubbuch, the owner of the restaurant below the apartment, said his employees alerted him after they felt a foul smell "like sewage dripping into the restaurant from the apartment."

Investigators have collected the surveillance footage from Hubbuch's restaurant.

He recollected the children were "very well mannered," while their mother was a "nightmare." "She was always screaming at them. She had this little dog and was really skinny," Hubbuch said.

"It's a tragedy but if you talk to most people around here I don't think people would be surprised or shocked," Hubbuch told New York Daily News.

Other neighbors also vouched that the children's mother was "overprotective" and "strict" with the kids. "She wouldn't let the kids do nothing, she wouldn't let them play with [other] kids. I saw them last week, and she was yelling at the kids then. They're good kids, but it's her," Chris Harrington, a neighbor, said.

A woman in California was arrested last week after her three children were found dead inside her home. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives reached a house in Victory Boulevard based on reports of an assault with a deadly weapon and found three children, aged 6, 8 and 12, unresponsive. They were pronounced dead at the scene.