Mom of Bronx twin babies found dead in trash is arrested five years later

Nearly five years after newborn twin boys were discovered beaten to death in the trash behind a Bronx building, authorities have arrested the babies’ mother following a dogged, years-long search, police announced Friday.

The full-term identical baby boys, who detectives named Zeke and Zane, were found in November 2020 by the superintendent of an apartment building on College Ave. near E. 171st St. in Claremont. The city’s chief medical examiner determined they died from blunt force trauma less than 12 hours before they were found, with injuries indicating they had been beaten to death.

On Thursday, police arrested the infants’ mother, Stephanie Castillo, 36. Castillo is charged with six counts of murder and six counts of manslaughter, according to police.

The newborns were both naked when they were found, and one had a shower loofah wrapped near his neck, authorities said at the time. They weighed just 5 and 6 pounds.

Frustrated detectives tried desperately to find Castillo in the intervening years, upping the reward money from $2,500 to $10,000 and making multiple pleas to the public for any information leading to her arrest. Police scoured area hospitals and questioned the residents of all 42 apartments in the building but no one reported seeing a pregnant woman. Video surveillance came up empty, police said at the time.

“Someone has to know something. So we’re asking for the public’s help,” Lt. William O’Toole, then-commander of the NYPD’s Bronx Homicide Squad, said in a plea for information in 2021.

Ultimately, police paid for the babies’ funeral.

On Thursday a police source divulged how authorities found Castillo. According to the source, Castillo lived with her parents in the building when the babies were found, but had hidden the pregnancy from them. After giving birth, she threw the baby twins out the window in garbage bags, the source said.

During the investigation, DNA was taken from the newborns, determining they were twins and linking them to the mother, whose blood was also found in the trash bags, although for a time her identity remained a mystery.

After murdering the twins, Castillo went to live in Staten Island and may have spent time in the Dominican Republic, according to the source. The case was finally busted open through familial DNA, after police found a relative of the babies who had at some point been in the criminal justice system and whose DNA police had on file, the source said.

From there police were able to trace the mother’s identity. They went looking for her, saw her and grabbed a can she tossed after drinking from it, and matched it to the mother’s DNA.

When police arrested her, she was living in a shelter on Jerome Ave., about a mile north from the crime scene, in Morris Heights.

Her arraignment was pending Thursday afternoon.

Originally Published: July 25, 2025 at 4:12 PM EDT