Aseelah Mohammed: New Haven Woman Found Dead At Homeless Facility
Aseelah Mohammed, 41, of New Haven, Connecticut, had some struggles in life, but she was a “a truly loved person. She had a beautiful heart,” her mother, Imani Mohammed-Denny. told the Hartford Courant.
“My daughter mattered,” Mohammed-Denny said of the oldest of her six children. “Her life mattered. I’m going to make sure I turn New Haven upside down to make sure she gets the justice she deserves.”
Mohammed was pronounced dead on Thursday, December 28, 2023, days after showing up at a homeless. At opposite ends of the case have been the family and supporters, who say she was murdered – and law enforcement, who say the evidence points to Mohammed’s case involving drug overdose. Autopsy results conclude there was “a combination of narcotic substances in her body,” according to city officials.
One thing is certain: Video surveillance shows a man dragging Mohammed’s lifeless body. That man, a 62-year-old, was arrested on March 8 for illegal disposal of a corpse, meaning law enforcement officials acknowledge that Mohammed was dead in the video footage. Still, no murder charges are forthcoming.
The state medical examiner classified Mohammed’s death as “undetermined,” throwing the case into limbo.
The victim’s mother said that Mohammed was only visiting the homeless facility – not living there. Furthermore, after she watched the video, Mohammed-Denny is convinced that this is not a simple overdose case: Her daughter, who was found with a bruised head and whose body was discovered wrapped in a blanket and placed under sheetrock, was murdered.
Police notified Mohammed-Denny days later. By that time, the body was too decomposed for an open casket funeral.
“She was unrecognizable when I went to view her body,” the mother told the news outlet. “That just tells you the brutality of how her body was when I came up to make funeral arrangements.”
An arrest warrant affidavit obtained by New Haven Dependent newspaper states that Mohammed’s body contained several drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine and heroin. “Additionally, the medical examiner found blunt force trauma of neck and extremities, with abrasions of lower extremities as well as intramuscular hemorrhage of right posterior neck.”
“I’m here. I’m grieving. I’m hurting,” Mohammed-Denny said. To get justice for her daughter, she has moved back from North Carolina to New Haven and joins protesters outside city hall with “Justice for Aseelah.”
The organizers say that Mohammed’s murder has been “swept under the rug because of her race, mental illness and drug addiction.” Mohammed was diagnosed with schizophrenia and struggled with substance abuse in the past, her mother said.
According to police, the man who was arrested claims that he and Mohammed went around back of the facility on Christmas Eve to get high and the woman, whom he knew only as “Priscilla,” went to sleep and never woke up. Police told Mohammed-Denny that Mohammed “might have been selling sex for drugs” before she died. Mohammed-Denny has said that that was a very disrespectful thing to say.
New Haven police have even gone back and forth with some of Mohammed-Denny's comments.
“We must respectfully refute some of Ms. Denny's claims. Our investigation has been conducted in a professional manner and was in no way affected by Aseelah’s race, mental health diagnoses, or substance use issues," the police department said in a statement.
No matter what happened before her death, the family says the evidence still doesn’t explain her injuries. Also, the victim’s family questions why the man didn’t call 911 if this was a simple drug overdose.
Victims advocate Jewu Richardson, a member of the Civilian Review Board, told WNPR in Connecticut police outreach should be more transparent.
“This is a grieving mother, a grieving family,” Jewu Richardson, an advocate who sits on the New Haven Civilian Review Board, said at Thursday’s protest.
“Detectives reviewed numerous hours of video surveillance from the facility where Aseelah was found and was able to arrest an individual associated with her, charging him with illegal disposal of a body,” New Haven police Officer Christian Bruckhart said in a statement. “He was then re-interviewed in a post-arrest interview. With assistance from the state’s attorney’s office, it was ultimately decided there was not enough evidence at that time to conclude that Aseelah was murdered. That may change should new information come to light.”
Mohammed always called her siblings on their birthdays. When she didn’t make the call for one of her siblings during Christmas week, her mother knew something was wrong.
“At that point, I knew,” Mohammed-Denny told the Hartford Courant. “I knew in my heart my daughter was gone.”
New Haven police are encouraging anyone with information to call detectives at 203-946-6304 or the Police Department’s anonymous tip line at 866-888-TIPS (8477).
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