Francis Cabello

Introduction

Francis Cabello, a 32-year-old Queens mother, was charged with murder on Thursday, October 15, 2026, after her 5-year-old daughter, Fabiana Cabello, died at Jamaica Hospital the night before; she was arraigned the next morning at Queens Criminal Court, where she was held without bail as prosecutors revealed autopsy findings they say are consistent with asphyxiation. Police sources told the New York Post that Cabello called 911 herself on the evening of October 14 and told the dispatcher, “I killed my daughter,” and that when officers reached the family’s South Richmond Hill home she told them, “She’s upstairs not breathing.” The NYPD is investigating the case as a homicide.

Background Information

The family lived on 110th Street near 95th Avenue in South Richmond Hill, in a two-story home where Fabiana’s grandfather, Franklin Cabello — whom ABC7 identified as her grandfather and the Post as her father — was home on the night of her death. He told the Post that Francis had long struggled with her mental health, had been hospitalized about three months earlier, and had recently stopped taking her medication, telling him the doctor had authorized her to stop; “I knew mentally she wasn’t 100% there,” he said. The Post reported the household was no stranger to police calls: officers responded to the home in April 2025 for an alleged child-abuse incident involving the mother and daughter that was deemed unfounded, and in May 2026 answered an “emotionally disturbed person” call for Cabello that ended with her taken to a hospital for examination.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged with murder; held without bail. Cabello is accused by Queens prosecutors of murdering her 5-year-old daughter — an account that began with her own 911 call and that an autopsy, according to prosecutors, found consistent with asphyxiation. She has been arraigned but not tried, and nothing has been tested in court: Cabello, who has a documented mental-health history, is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Police and EMS reached the 110th Street home shortly before 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14, after Cabello’s 911 call. Her downstairs neighbor told the Post she came down saying her daughter was not breathing; upstairs, EMTs found Fabiana with blood coming out of her nose and a weak pulse, and the girl was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she could not be saved — ABC7 reported the time of death as just before 7:30 p.m. Relatives said the first sign that something had gone terribly wrong came when police and EMS stormed into the apartment; Fabiana had shut herself in her room, and her grandfather said the family “saw nothing.”

At the arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Lindsey Ruzza laid out the prosecution’s account: the girl had allegedly been in good health and running around the family’s home for hours before her mother brought her to a second-floor bedroom, locked the door, and emerged alone 45 minutes later to call 911. Ruzza said officers immediately began CPR on the unconscious child and — given the severity of her condition, “they didn’t even wait for an ambulance” — placed Fabiana in a patrol car and rushed her to Jamaica Hospital, where she was pronounced dead; first responders found her face down on the floor with blood coming out of her nose, and Cabello and her daughter were the only two people in the room, according to prosecutors. Ruzza said Cabello made several statements to police “in reference to not only killing the child but wanting to have killed her child.”

An autopsy conducted by Dr. Lin of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed scrapes to the child’s face, petechiae in her eyes, heart, and lungs, a swollen brain, bruises to her extremities, and intramuscular hemorrhaging on her shoulder blade and lower back — findings consistent with asphyxiation, according to court documents and prosecutors.

Police charged Cabello with murder Thursday evening, according to the Post, which said she had confessed to the 911 operator; ABC7’s updated report likewise states that the 32-year-old “is now charged with murder after police say she confessed to killing her daughter.” On Friday morning, wearing a long white gown and sneakers, she was led out of a police precinct and guided into a waiting car for Queens Criminal Court, staying mum as detectives walked her past reporters, and she was arraigned on second-degree murder charges and held without bail. The earlier coverage had conflicted on her custody status — WABC’s first report said she had been taken for psychiatric evaluation with no arrests announced, while the Post cited sources saying she was arrested and questioned — a discrepancy the formal charge resolved.

Public Reaction and Consequences

“The family is distraught,” Franklin Cabello told the Post: “I wouldn’t say that she would be capable of doing damage to the child because she’s a mom that was protective over her kid. She was attentive. I never would have thought she would have done something like this.” He said he had kept pressing his daughter to resume her medication and found it hard to believe any doctor had authorized stopping it “without seeing her.” After the arraignment, he told reporters outside court in Spanish, “As a family, we feel mentally and physically destroyed. We can’t think [clearly] but we put our confidence in God,” and said Francis “wasn’t in control” and “didn’t make this decision in her right mind. She was under some kind of influence” — adding with tears in his eyes, “I forgive my daughter.” A neighbor who gave his name as Carlos told the Post that after the girl’s death Cabello “was not crying” and “it was like nothing happened.” Others on the block remembered Fabiana differently — “Always happy,” one told WABC, describing a child who spent the summer riding her bicycle and scooter outside.

Current Status

Cabello was arraigned at Queens Criminal Court on Friday, October 16, on second-degree murder charges and ordered held without bail; she has not been tried, and every allegation against her is untested. The autopsy findings prosecutors laid out — consistent with asphyxiation, according to court documents — now sit alongside her confessed 911 call as the case proceeds, while the NYPD’s homicide investigation remains active.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Cabello had no public profile before this week: she was a private mother living with her family in Richmond Hill, and her name entered the public record through her daughter’s death, her own reported 911 call, and the murder charge that followed it. The family’s home sat behind police tape as the scene of a homicide investigation through the week, and the question the case leaves open — how a mother recently hospitalized for her mental health came to stop taking her medication — now sits at the center of a prosecution.

Sources

• NY Post, “NYC mom charged with murdering her 5-year-old after confessing to 911 operator: ‘I killed my daughter,’” Oct 16, 2026 — source
• NY Post, “NYC girl, 5, killed by mom suffered heart, brain injuries, DA reveals,” Oct 16, 2026 — source
• NY Post, “Francis Cabello, who told 911 she killed 5-year-old daughter in NYC, had been ‘acting strange’ for months,” Oct 15, 2026 — source
• ABC7 Eyewitness News (WABC), “5-year-old Queens girl Fabiana Cabello dead, mother charged in her murder,” Oct 16, 2026 — source
• ABC7 Eyewitness News (WABC), “5-year-old Queens girl Fabiana Cabello dead, mother confessed in 911 call, NYPD says,” Oct 15, 2026 — source
• WFB News, “Mother Confesses to Killing Child Inside Queens Home,” Oct 15, 2026 — source