Key finding: The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded on Friday that Daphy Michel, 31, died of hypothermia on March 2, three days after she was released from federal custody. The examiner characterized Michel as "a vulnerable adult, suffering from untreated severe mental health issues and a significant language barrier" at the time of her release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a formal statement, James Madalinsky, a spokesperson for the examiner’s office, said: "Based on all available information during the investigation, the pathologist ruled Ms. Michel’s death a homicide." Madalinsky added that a homicide designation is not a "declaration of criminal guilt."
The Office of the Allegheny County District Attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prior to her death, federal authorities had accused Michel of "terroristic threats and harassment" and initiated deportation proceedings. While denying that the agency was responsible for Michel’s death, Lauren Bis, the acting DHS assistant secretary, said on Friday that Michel was released from custody after she had been fitted with an ankle monitor.
Context and comparison: The medical examiner’s ruling follows a similar determination made in April, when an investigation concluded that a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who was found dead in New York after being released from jail and placed in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol had likewise died under circumstances ruled by an examiner to be a homicide. The Allegheny County finding and the April case both drew attention to the conditions and circumstances surrounding releases from federal custody.
What the report documents:
- The official cause of death: hypothermia.
- The time between release from federal custody and death: three days.
- Descriptions by the examiner of Michel as a vulnerable adult with untreated severe mental health problems and significant language barriers.
- Statements from both the medical examiner’s office and an acting DHS official regarding the circumstances of release and the legal meaning of a homicide ruling.
The examiner’s homicide determination sets a medical-legal classification but, as the office emphasized, does not itself assign criminal responsibility. The case and the public statements from federal and local officials underscore unresolved questions about the handling of vulnerable individuals released from immigration detention.