Sebastian Zapeta-Calil ID’d as illegal migrant accused of setting woman on fire riding NYC subway

The illegal Guatemalan migrant accused of torching a woman on a Brooklyn subway train has been identified as Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, who snuck back into the US after being deported, federal immigration officials said Monday.

Zapeta-Calil is now being by the NYPD while authorities await the results of an autopsy of the victim, sources said.

Police busted the man accused of lighting a woman on fire on the F train in Brooklyn on Dec. 22, 2024. G.N.Miller/NYPost
Subway surveillance images show the suspect.
Surveillance footage of the suspect watching the woman burn to death on the train. Obtained by the Post
The Post confirmed the suspect is a migrant from Guatemala who is in the US illegally. DCPI

Sources said the autopsy will determine what charges may be lodged against the migrant — but said the process is complicated by the condition of the victim’s body, which was badly scorched in the incident.

According to Marie Ferguson, a spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency is expected to lodge a detainer on Zapeta-Calil while he is held in the Big Apple.

Follow the latest on the migrant accused of burning a woman to death on the subway:

Ferguson said Zapeta-Calil was nabbed at the border in Arizona on June 1, 2018, and deported a week later — but re-entered the country illegally at some point.