"I killed my daughter." That's what Francis Cabello told the police on a call on the evening of October 14. The police arrived at their home in the Richmond Hill neighbourhood of Queens and found the child, Fabiana Cabello, unconscious. The five-year-old was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Now her father, Kuldeep Singh, is trying to raise $18,000 for her funeral.
According to a report by The New York Times, the police received an unusual 911 call from a woman reporting an assault at her address. The caller, identified as 32-year-old Francis Cabello, told police, "I killed my daughter."
"She's upstairs not breathing," the mother told first responders when they arrived, according to law enforcement sources.
Officers arrived at Cabello's house at 6:55 pm and found the girl unresponsive and bleeding from her nose. She was taken to the nearby hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead.
What happened inside the Cabello house before the call was made to the police remains unclear. Cabello was arrested on a murder charge on Thursday.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE, an autopsy found that the girl had scrapes on her face, as well as petechiae (tiny spots caused by bleeding) in her eyes, heart and lungs. These findings can be associated with asphyxia, the complaint states.
Fabiana's father, Kuldeep Singh, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover funeral expenses.
"I loved my daughter very much, and losing her feels like I lost my whole world," Kuldeep wrote in a GoFundMe campaign started four days ago.
Fabiana Cabello
"Right now, I am facing expenses I cannot cover on my own. The funeral home and cemetery are asking for a deposit, and I do not have the money for it. I am trying to keep working as an Uber driver while driving a rental car, but I am grieving and struggling to manage these costs at the same time."
Singh added that the fundraiser is intended to give his daughter a "proper funeral" and support him during "one of the hardest moments" of his life.
Mother Had "Psychological Issues"
According to a New York Post report, Francis Cabello had "psychological issues" and was acting "strange".
"I knew mentally she wasn't 100% there," said Cabello's father, Franklin Cabello, who was home at the time. "I knew something was wrong. When a person stops taking medicine for the sickness that she had, the person is going to suffer.
"I wouldn't say that she would be capable of doing damage to the child because she's a mom that was protective over her kid. She was attentive. I never would have thought she would have done something like this," he said. "The family is distraught."
Dad Cabello said that he was paying attention to his daughter because she was "acting strange" and had "stopped taking the medication".
"I used to tell her to take her medication. She said the doctor authorised her to stop taking the medicine," he told the NY Post.
"Beautiful Child"
Punraj Singh, Cabello's uncle, who used to live in the apartment below theirs, described the five-year-old as "so loving and joyful".
Singh said he had been very close to Fabiana. She would visit him often and he would cook her small feasts of her favourite Indian delicacies - fried fish, dal puri, roti and curry, the NYT reported.
Singh said Fabiana had been a light in his family and their home.
He recalled the ways she looked after his mother, her great-grandmother, taking her hand and helping her around the apartment when her knees hurt. Talking about young Cabello's friendly nature, Singh said, the family had to remind her not to talk to strangers. Once, during a doctor's appointment, she hugged all the nurses she could see, he said.
"Nobody would want to lose her," Singh told the NYT. "She was such a beautiful child."
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