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Police issue arrest warrant for mother of 5-year-old twins found dead in Bronx home: NYPD
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 9, 2024
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By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 9, 2024
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Police said they plan to arrest a 42-year-old Bronx mother in connection to the December deaths of her 5-year-old twins after the city’s medical examiner ruled their deaths homicides, NYPD brass said Tuesday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Gloria Asamoah is currently staying in a psychiatric ward and will be taken into police custody once doctors clear her. She will face multiple felony charges, including two counts of murder, according to police.
Attorney information for Asamoah was not immediately available.
The arrest warrant comes almost a month after the city medical examiner’s office ruled the siblings’ deaths to be homicides by smothering. Police had originally said no criminality was suspected after the distraught mom called 911 at 11 a.m. of Dec. 18 to report her children, Gianna and George Kantanka, weren’t breathing. Kenny said the twins were found foaming at the mouth and nose at the time of their discovery.
There were several signs that led police to make that early declaration of no criminality, authorities said. Kenny said an early investigation found the family’s apartment stocked with food and child-rearing necessities, and interviews with neighbors and school personnel indicated Asamoah was a loving mother to her two children, who Kenny said were both diagnosed as autistic.
“No signs of trouble,” Kenny said Tuesday. “But this is one of those cases why we always say that information is preliminary and subject to change because March 13, or approximately 10 weeks later, autopsy reveals that both kids, the cause of death was asphyxia, meaning that they were choked.”
Asamoah arrived in the United States from Ghana at 23-years-old, Kenny said. She lived in several other states before moving to the Bronx with her husband of 10 years, a healthcare worker who was working in Port Chester, N.Y. at the time of the kids’ deaths, Kenny said. Her husband was in constant contact with Asamoah that day, Kenny added, urging her to take the children, who were sick at the time, to the emergency room.
Kenny said police have video of the mom entering the apartment with the children the night before, and then again pacing by herself in the hallway of the apartment at 5 a.m. In December, Kenny said the mom had last reported seeing them alive at 5 a.m.
The mother was so despondent at the time of the children's’ deaths that she was taken to a psychiatric ward, where she remains, Kenny said. It was unclear what led to the children's’ deaths, and a motive for the crime has not been determined, according to police.
Bahar Ostadan contributed reporting.
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Catalina Gonella
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