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Forensic Examiner Rules Haitian Migrant's Death a Homicide; Family Considers Lawsuit
🇲🇽 Mexico /Crime & Justice

Forensic Examiner Rules Haitian Migrant's Death a Homicide; Family Considers Lawsuit

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • A Haitian asylum seeker, Daphy Michel, died of hypothermia after being released from federal custody, with a coroner classifying her death as a homicide.
  • Michel, who suffered from untreated mental health issues and a language barrier, was found on a bus stop days after her release.
  • Her family's lawyer plans to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while ICE denies any responsibility for her death.

The death of Daphy Michel, a 31-year-old Haitian asylum seeker, has been classified as a homicide by a medical examiner, raising serious questions about her treatment after being released from federal custody. Michel was found deceased on a bus stop on March 2, having died from hypothermia, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office. The classification of homicide indicates her death resulted from the actions of another person, though it is not a criminal conviction.

The death was caused by hypothermia and the manner of death was ruled a homicide, which indicates that the death was caused by the actions of another person.

— Office of the Medical ExaminerExplaining the classification of Daphy Michel's death.

Michel arrived at the U.S. southern border in 2022 seeking asylum and was granted humanitarian parole due to urgent need. However, she died before attending a scheduled hearing two weeks after her release. Her lawyer, Joseph Patrick Murphy, stated that Michel was a vulnerable adult with severe, untreated mental health problems and a significant language barrier at the time of her release on February 27.

Murphy detailed that Michel had spent six months in county jail after being arrested the previous summer for shouting at imaginary people due to her psychiatric condition. A magistrate determined she could not be held further for threatening imaginary individuals. Subsequently, ICE took her into custody from her jail cell, fitted her with an ankle monitor, and transported her to Pittsburgh. She was left at a bus stop in winter conditions, wearing clothing unsuitable for the February weather, which Murphy believes led to her succumbing to hypothermia.

She was wearing clothes from September and it was February, and the weather overcame her and she went into hypothermia.

— Joseph Patrick MurphyThe family's lawyer, describing the conditions that led to Michel's death.

ICE, through Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis, has vehemently denied any involvement in Michel's death, stating she died three days after ICE last encountered her. Despite ICE's denial, Murphy expressed his expectation that Michel's family will file a lawsuit against the agency, seeking accountability for her tragic end.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement had NOTHING to do with this woman's death. She passed away THREE days after ICE encountered her.

— Lauren BisDHS spokesperson, denying ICE's responsibility for Daphy Michel's death.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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