An autopsy has determined that a 14-year-old girl found charred and naked on a Brooklyn beach was smothered and suffocated to death. Now her family is pleading for help from the public. Lori Bordonaro reports.
An autopsy has determined that a 14-year-old girl found charred and naked on a Brooklyn beach was smothered and suffocated to death.
The medical examiner's office says that Shaniesha Forbes died of "homicidal asphyxiation."
Her body was discovered on Gerritsen Beach on Jan. 6.
She had attended the Academy for Young Writers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She disappeared two days before her body was found.
Forbes had burns on her legs, arms and hands and when she was found face up on the beach.
A law enforcement official told NBC 4 New York that investigators also located a kerosene can and signs of a bonfire nearby.
At a press conference Friday, Forbes' family said they were devastated by the autopsy results.
"Suffocated her, put a hand around her mouth until her last breath leaves her body, thats a cruel thing to do," said Forbes' grandmother Daisy Smith.
Family members said Forbes was often teased by classmates about her hair and wanted to switch schools. They said her last Facebook post indicated she was going to the movies with a male companion, and they are convinced someone at her school knows who he is.
"Someone has to go to jail for this," said community activist Tony Herbert. "Someone out there knows what happened."
