Staten Island baby had no food in stomach — and no name — when he died of malnutrition: police sources

The month-old Staten Island newborn who died of malnutrition didn’t have any food in his stomach — nor did he have a name — as his parents rushed him to get emergency medical care, police sources said Wednesday.
The tragic infant is the second child to die from malnutrition in the city in the past few months.
Jah’Meik Modlin, a 4-year-old Harlem boy, weighed just 19 pounds when he died Oct. 13 after falling unconscious in his family’s apartment. The child’s parents, Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, and Laron Modlin, 25, were indicted for murder Wednesday after initially being charged with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.
Now, an autopsy has revealed that little Joseph Heben Jr. had no food in his stomach or urine in his bladder when his parents raced him to Staten Island University Hospital this summer on July 20.
The infant, who was only 43 days old, also hadn’t been given a name by his 23-year-old parents by the day he died, a police source with knowledge of the case said. The child was ultimately named after his father.
The city medical examiner earlier this week determined that Joseph died of malnutrition and dehydration and declared his death a homicide.
A day after the infant died, detectives talked to Joseph’s parents. His mother said that she put the infant into his bassinet at their home on Main St. near Craig Ave. in Tottenville at 4:30 a.m.
When she returned to check on her child a half hour later, he was unconscious and unresponsive.
At the same time, the father returned home from his job as a tow truck driver at an auto body shop, police said. He took both the mother and child to the hospital in his tow truck.
The baby died at about 6:15 a.m., police said.
The tow truck that was used to bring the baby to the hospital was impounded by police as possible evidence in a crime. The company got the tow truck back after an investigation, but Joseph’s father never returned to work, a former co-worker told the Daily News Wednesday.
No charges have been filed against either parent.
Neighbors said the couple also has a young daughter who appeared well cared for.
“As soon as this family came to our attention in July, we launched an immediate investigation with the NYPD,” a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children’s Services said.
In the case of Jah’Meik Modlin’s death in Harlem in October, prosecutors said the apartment where the boy lived in squalid conditions with his rail-thin siblings, ages 5, 6 and 7, was stocked with food — but that all the cabinets were secured with zip ties and the refrigerator was turned toward a wall so its doors could not easily be opened.