By PAULA ANN MITCHELL
Freeman staff
pmitchell@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/anchoratfreeman

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — Police on Thursday said the 2-year-old girl who died the previous day in New Paltz was killed by blunt force trauma, and they declared the case a homicide.

The New Paltz Police Department said the conclusion was reached after an autopsy was performed by Dr. Michael Sikirica, though Police Chief Joseph Snyder said investigators still were not sure what was used to inflict the trauma.

“At this point ... we’re in the process of furthering the investigation to see exactly how that trauma was caused,” he said Thursday afternoon at a police command post across the street from where the girl was found.

Synder identified the dead girl as Asia Perez-Medina, and his department issued a press release Thursday evening that said she was a citizen of the Dominican Republic who was staying with relatives locally at the time of her death.

Snyder said the girl’s aunt and uncle, whose last name is Perez, live in the house at 332 state Route 32 North in New Paltz where Asia was found dead but that he did not know who owns the house.

Synder said investigators were pursuing multiple leads, but police had not announced any arrest in the case as of 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

“We’re interviewing several people,” the chief said. “The majority of the work is being conducted (by) the forensics unit from the New York State Police, and that could take some time to get some of the results back, but … we’re just following up on several leads, and we have many interviews taking place.”

Police responded to the Route 32 house about noon Wednesday and later announced that a 2-year-old girl had died there.



“We were called around 12 (noon) for a missing child, and when we arrived, we found a member of the family with the child, and the rescue (squad) was called,” Snyder said at the scene on Wednesday. Continued...

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On Thursday, the chief said the child was with the aunt and uncle when police arrived.

“They reported her missing to 911 just prior to the police arriving, and when police got here, she was located just prior to police arriving by the aunt and uncle,” Snyder said. 

The chief said he knew of no previous problems at the house.

“There’s nothing to our knowledge or any complaints we’ve ever received,” he said.

At the house on Thursday, furniture and trash bags were strewn across the lawn as investigators continued going in and out of the structure.

About 3:30 p.m., a large number if state police investigators and members of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the command post.

They then spread out around a vacant former tavern across the street, combing through bushes next to the structure and a wooded area behind it.

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