Woman burned to death in horrific subway attack identified: police

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Guatemalan migrant charged in NYC subway fire death was reportedly in US illegally

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The woman who was heinously burned alive in a New York City subway car last week has been identified as a 57-year-old woman from New Jersey, Fox News Digital has learned.

Police tell Fox News Digital the woman has been identified as Debrina Kawam of Toms River, a township and coastal town located on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County. Kawam was lit on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn, New York, on Dec. 22.

Officials were unable to identify Kawam’s body for days after the attack because she was so severely burned. The NYPD did not provide an official cause of death.

Police investigate at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn after a woman aboard a subway car was set on fire and died in New York, United States on Dec. 22, 2024. Police believe the woman had been sleeping aboard the train when a man approached her and set her on fire. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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The homeless nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless previously stated that the victim may have been homeless at the time of her death. Police were unable to confirm if she was homeless.

The New York Post, citing police sources, reports that Kawam had been living in New York City shelters since at least Sept. 9 and had been given a bed at the Franklin Williams Women’s Shelter in the Bronx on Nov. 30 but left on Dec. 2.

WATCH: Eric Adams discusses subway burning victim Debrina Kawam

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On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he did not have any additional information on Kawam, other than that she had a brief stint in the city’s homeless shelter system.

“Our hearts go out to her family. A horrific incident to have to live through,” Adams told reporters at a daily press briefing. 

“Just watching that tape, just really I couldn’t watch it all the way through. It was just a bad incident and it impacts on how New Yorkers feel.”

He said that homeless people should not be living in the subway system and instead should be in a place of care. 

“And no matter where she lived, that should not have happened,” Adams said. “But we have far too many people that believe, they should be on our subway system and living on our streets, and we can’t throw our hands up and allow that to happen.”

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, a previously deported immigrant from Guatemala, was arrested hours after the horrific incident which shocked the nation. 

H⁠⁠e’s been indicted on one count of murder in the first degree, three counts of murder in the second degree and one count of arson in relation to the horrific case. 

NYPD officers escort Sebastian Zapeta from an F train in Coney Island from a precinct in Lower Manhattan on Dec. 22, 2024. (Courtesy: G.N. Miller/New York Post)

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Surveillance video of the attack showed the suspect approaching the woman, who was sitting motionless and may have been sleeping, while aboard a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station and then setting her on fire.

Police say Zapeta used a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds. Video from the scene shows Kawam standing while on fire, indicating she was alive when set on fire. 

The suspect then stayed on the scene and sat on a bench just outside the train car, as officers and a transit worker extinguished the flames. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire inside a New York City subway train, appears in court on Dec. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Means via Pool)

Zapeta faces life without the possibility of parole on the murder in the first-degree charge, while second-degree murder carries 25 years to life, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said earlier this week.

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“This was malicious. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system,” Gonzalez added. “This act surprised many New Yorkers as they were getting ready to celebrate the holidays but now New Yorkers are waking up and understanding that on the 22nd of this year, this happened. This was intentional and we hope to prove this.”

Adams’ office tells Fox News Digital that the mayor has directed the NYPD and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) team to explore criminal charges against Zapeta under the federal arson statute.

Zapeta was apprehended by Border Patrol and subsequently deported by the Trump administration on June 7, 2018, after he crossed illegally into Sonoita, Arizona, a week prior, ICE spokesperson Jeff Carter tells Fox News. Zapeta later re-entered the U.S. illegally on an unknown date and location, Carter said. 

Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.