Dead infant in Elmhurst

From the Queens Gazette:

Queens police officials are awaiting the results of tests performed by the city Medical Examiner to determine the cause of death of a 2-month-old girl who was found dead on November 17 inside a daycare center located at a dilapidated home in Elmhurst.

Police found the unconscious infant shortly before 9 a.m. on Saturday, in a daycare center located on the second floor of the home at 92-45 55th Avenue, authorities said.

Cops said Jennifer Zheng had a blanket over her head and was not breathing when she was found at about 8:45 a.m. in one of several cribs inside her babysitter’s home.

Emergency responders took the lifeless infant to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she was pronounced dead on arrival. There were no signs of trauma on the infant, police said.

Police alerted the city Department of Buildings (DOB) immediately after the child’s body was found to report a “possible illegal daycare” facility operating out of the home.

DOB officials shuttered two floors of the building owned by Wai Yee Chung shortly after the baby was found dead in the crib.

From the Times Ledger:

While Jason and other neighbors said they never witnessed any activity that would suggest an unlicensed daycare was being run out of the house, that is exactly what the NYPD told the city Department of Buildings, according to a complaint on file in a city database.

The complaint alleges that the business was operating on the second floor, where several cribs were found, the New York Post reported.

In response, the department issued a vacate order Saturday and a notice posted to the front door warned anyone who entered the second or third floors of the house might be arrested due to the floors being deemed “imminently perilous to life.”

The house is owned by Wei Yee and Kuo Ping Cheng, according to records from the city Department of Finance, and is only legally allowed to house one family.

But neighbors said at least two lived at the residence.

The side yard of the house was littered with construction materials, where a large Rottweiler dog paced between discarded bathroom fixtures, buckets of waterproofing liquid and a detached vehicle door.