https://abc7ny.com/alexandra-castano...enue/11090595/
MOUNT VERNON, New York (WABC) -- A grieving mother welcomed friends Wednesday as they offered condolences next to the very spot where she found her daughter's body.
The cause of Alexandra Castano's death remains under investigation, but her family suspects foul play.
"One-hundred percent my sister would never, she wasn't doing any drugs...someone did something to my sister and no one's helping," the victim's sister Cristina Benitez said.
Around 8 p.m. Monday night, the 24-year-old told her mother she was going out. A half hour later she texted that she was headed back home, but her mother said she never returned.
Lucia Castano discovered her daughter's lifeless body the next morning in the vestibule of the house on Summit Avenue.
"It's like somebody put her there," Castano said.
Mount Vernon police have not labeled Castano's death as a homicide. The family says preliminary autopsy results showed no evidence of trauma nor a medical episode.
But the family wants answers.
"How does a 24-year-old just die right in front of her house, and no one knows what happened," Benitez said.
According to the medical examiner, the cause of death is pending. The family says they are delaying making funeral arrangements because they are planning a second, independent autopsy.
The house is absolutely huge so it's not surprising no one heard anything
https://patch.com/new-york/mountvern...ntified-report
Tuesday morning, the Mount Vernon police say they received a call about an unresponsive woman in the front vestibule of this home at 165 Summit Ave. (Google Maps)
MOUNT VERNON, NY ? The loved ones of a 24-year-old woman who was found dead at the front door of her family home says they suspect misadventure, but police and preliminary results from the medical examiner have so far given no indication of foul play.
At 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the Mount Vernon police say they received a call about an unresponsive woman in the front vestibule of 165 Summit Ave. Police found the body of the woman inside the front entry to the home.
Detectives have so far declined to refer to the case as a homicide, instead calling the case an "unattended death" investigation.
The body was taken by the Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office. Police have not yet released the identity of the dead woman, but Alexandra Castano's mother told ABC News the body was that of her daughter who lived with her at the address.
Lucia Castano told reporters that she discovered her daughter's body in the vestibule of their Mount Vernon home Tuesday morning after the 24-year-old failed to return home the previous night.
"It's like somebody put her there," Castano told WABC News reporter Marcus Solis.
The family said preliminary autopsy results haven't shed any light on what happened to Alexandra Castano. They said they will insist on a second independent autopsy in a desperate bid to get answers.
The Mount Vernon Police Department Detective Division is in charge of the investigation. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Detective Division at 914-665-2510.