The Bronx girl found unconscious in the lobby of her aunt’s apartment building was strangled to death, authorities said yesterday.
An autopsy yesterday revealed that the tragic death of Destiny Sanchez, 15, was caused by compression of her neck and smothering, according to the medical examiner.
The victim’s sister tried to revive her through CPR after her brother found her unconscious about 8 a.m. Friday in the lobby of a Barretto Street building in Hunts Point.
Before she was found dead, Sanchez had gone out drinking with her stepmother’s brother Luis Vega, 34.
Cops were interviewing neighbors yesterday to develop a timeline of the night before her death, police sources said.
Before her death had been ruled a homicide, Vega was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, because Sanchez was a minor and had been drinking in his presence, cops said.
Vega was in police custody at Bronx Lebanon Hospital yesterday, where he was receiving treatment for a prior medical condition, cops added.
He is a suspect in her murder, and charges against him were likely to be upgraded now that her death was ruled a homicide, police sources said.
Sanchez would have celebrated her sixteenth birthday on Nov. 30. She was a freshman at a high school in Wakefield.