The mother of a month-old girl found decomposing in the closet of her family’s Brooklyn apartment may have suffered from postpartum depression and was overheard by relatives making statements about spirits in the months immediately following the birth of her child, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
Adonnys Kendall’s lifeless body was found wrapped in a blanket, stuffed in a duffel bag and hidden inside the closet at her family’s East Flatbush apartment on Veronica Place near Beverly Road around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 24, Kenny said.
The child’s mother, 25-year-old Gynae Kendall, was arrested the following day for concealment of a human corpse.
The victim’s family later told investigators they’d found strange notes written in her mother’s hand, in which she was “asking for the redemption of her sins,” and suspected she suffered from postpartum depression in the wake of her child’s birth on Dec. 2, Kenny said.
The victim’s grandmother requested the NYPD wellness check after growing suspicious when her daughter, 25-year-old Gynae Kendall, refused offers of diapers and baby formula, Kenny said. Patrolmen made a cursory search of the apartment with the consent of the victim’s mother, but didn’t check the closet where the girl’s body was hidden.
When asked who had the child, the girl’s mother said she was with her father, but the victim’s dad told police he had no idea where his daughter was, Kenny said.
Detectives at the 67th Precinct later conducted a “more aggressive search” of the mother’s apartment, leading them to find the girl’s severely decomposed body, Kenny said.
The victim’s grandmother never had a chance to meet her granddaughter, cops said.
When questioned by police following the revelation of her daughter’s death, Gynae requested a lawyer, Kenny said. A Brooklyn judge granted her supervised release and ordered her to undergo a psychiatric exam at her arraignment on Jan. 26.
Exactly when and how the girl died remains undetermined following an initial autopsy, according to Kenny, who said the city’s medical examiner recently sent the baby’s organs out for additional testing.
