Bronx mother charged with murdering daughter, 6, whose body was found last year

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Eleven months after the body of six-year-old Jalayah Eason was found with bruises and trauma in the Bronx, the NYPD charged her mother with murder.

Lynija Eason, 27, was charged Thursday morning with second-degree murder and two counts of manslaughter in the girl’s 2023 death.

Just before 4 a.m. on May 26, police responded to Jalayah’s 12 ^th -floor apartment in NYCHA’s Forest Houses, located at 730 East 165 ^th St. in Morrisania.

Upon arrival the victim was unconscious and unresponsive, and police said that her body had bruising and trauma around her wrists and torso.

EMS transported Jalayah to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln where she was pronounced dead.

The next day, a police source told the New York Daily News that police charged Eason with abusing her surviving children, an eight-year-old boy and three-year-old girl.

Neighbors told the Daily News that they consistently heard Eason screaming at the three children, and that they heard wailing coming from the apartment before police found Jalayah’s body.

The 2023 criminal complaint, obtained by the Daily News , said that the boy had “countless small lacerations in various stages of healing on his back, scalp, arms and legs” and the girl had “a long discolored scar to the right side of her waist” as well as a “widespread discolored rash to her inner thighs and buttocks.”

On May 28, Eason was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court on two counts of acting in a manner injurious to a child and pleaded not guilty. She received supervised release on no bail, court records show.

The children were taken into custody by the Administration for Children’s Services.

Over eight months after Jalayah’s body was discovered, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner deemed the death a homicide on Feb. 7, 2024.

Following her first court appearance, Eason has had 13 court dates that have either been adjourned or rescheduled.

Court records show Eason was due in court for the 2023 charges on Thursday, but the appearance was rescheduled when she was arrested and charged in Jalayah’s death.

“We are unbelievably saddened that children have lost their lives due to alleged abuse and neglect within their homes,” Bronx borough president Vanessa Gibson said in a statement May 30, 2023, regarding Jalayah’s death and the death of 3-month-old Genevieve Comager that same week.

“These tragedies are painful reminders of the need for mechanisms in place that would increase the monitoring and overall support for vulnerable or at-risk families who live in the Bronx,” Gibson added.