The death of a 5-month-old Queens girl being investigated as a homicide may have been the result of a ritual performed by a priestess brought to the family’s home to rid the child of a so-called “evil eye,” a law enforcement source said on Wednesday.
Police said they responded to a call about an unresponsive infant at a Greenpoint Avenue apartment near 39th Street in Sunnyside at 8 a.m. Saturday. There, police found 5-month-old Alaia Baque unresponsive.
Emergency personnel took the baby to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she was pronounced dead.
A spokeswoman for the medical examiner said that Baque died of abusive head trauma.
The law enforcement source said investigators are looking into the parents’ “evil eye” ritual claims, though would not say what, if any, religion it was related to.
The parents’ involvement is still under scrutiny, though they’re not currently in police custody, the source said.
