1-month-old NYC boy starves to death, cops launch homicide investigation: officials

A 1-month-old Staten Island boy starved to death over the summer – and the months-old case has been ruled a homicide, officials said this week. 

The infant – identified as Joseph Heben Jr., of Main Street near Craig Avenue in Tottenville – died from “complications of severe malnourishment,” the city Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday.

NYPD cops responded to Staten Island University Hospital’s south campus around 7 a.m. July 20, where hospital staff informed them that the baby arrived unconscious and unresponsive, police said. 

Cops responded to Staten Island University Hospital’s south campus on July 20. Corbis via Getty Images

He succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. 

Police have now launched a homicide investigation, though no arrests had been made by Wednesday, authorities said. 

The city Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday the boy died from “complications of severe malnourishment.” Google Maps

It was also not immediately clear whether the child’s parents were being questioned. 

In a similar case last month, Harlem parents Laron Modlin, 25, and Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, were both arrested in the starving death of their 4-year-old son Jah’Meik Modlin, authorities said. 

Ragsdale pleaded not guilty to murder in the second degree at her Manhattan Supreme Court arraignment Wednesday.