Police announce arrests in 1990 death of 4-year-old

Frank Eltman
Associated Press
Newsday
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New York (US):
It's been a decade since a man walking his dog in the woods near the far eastern end of the Long Island Expressway found a makeshift grave holding the skeletal remains of a tiny girl.
On Wednesday, homicide detectives announced they cracked the mystery, arresting 4-year-old Jennifer Shafiq's mother for second-degree murder and her father for hindering prosecution. Authorities say the parents lived in Queens when Khairual Abdul, now 42, allegedly beat the girl to death in 1990.
The remains of the girl, who was wearing a sleeveless dress and a T-shirt with the slogan, "My Heart Belongs to Grandma," were found six years later. But the case to track down the killer and even identify the little girl soon went cold.
Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the Suffolk County homicide squad, said detectives got a break last May, when police in Sacramento, Calif., called saying Parmjit Singh was implicating his estranged wife in the killing of their 4-year-old daughter in 1990. It was not immediately clear why Singh was speaking to detectives.
Mar 23, 2006