5-year-old Bronx twins died by homicide, medical examiner says
NEW YORK -- There is a heartbreaking update on 5-year-old twins found dead in the Bronx late last year.
The medical examiner announced Thursday they were smothered and their deaths are being considered homicides.
The NYPD said no one is currently in custody.
Two homicide detectives were seen leaving the sixth-floor apartment on East 175th Street in Mount Hope, where on Dec. 18 first responders found twins Gianna and George Kantanka dead.
Police had said their mom called 911 that morning reporting they were unconscious, cold and foaming from the mouth and nose. Police sources had said the kids were sent home sick from school the week before. Upon learning they could not be revived that day, the emotionally distraught mom was taken to a hospital.
On Thursday, after the detectives left, CBS New York knocked on the apartment door, but no one answered.
Neighbors were shocked to learn that the medical examiner has now deemed the deaths of the Kantanka twins a homicide, and that the kids were suffocated.
"I don't know. It's very sad," Mavis Ohene said.
Some who knew the family asked CBS New York not to show their faces, citing the ongoing investigation.
"I know their mom. She's a nice woman," one person said.
"We used to see the mother or going up in the elevator or coming down in the elevator and the kids was always coming up to you and saying hello and you would never suspect it," another said.
That person says the night before, the mom came into the hallway screaming and neighbors responding to the commotion saw what appeared to be lifeless bodies through the open door.
Police sources say the father worked in Westchester County and did not stay at the home most of the week.
"They were a loving family. I don't understand it," a neighbor said.
Police sources said the parents are being re-interviewed. No one is in custody and no criminal charges have been filed.
A representative for the Bronx district attorney would only say the case will be presented to a grand jury.
Why the twins were killed and who did it is a question now haunting people who fondly remember the joyful brother and sister.
Police sources said no evidence of drugs was found in the apartment, and that the parents, who are immigrants from Ghana, had food in the home and proper clothing for the children.