Authorities Struggle to Identify Woman in Subway Attack

We know the name of the man accused of setting a woman on fire on a New York City subway train in a horrific fatal attack last week: Sebastian Zapeta-Calil. But his victim? Authorities still have not been able to identify her, which speaks both to the nature of the attack and to the fact that authorities believe she was homeless. "It just adds another level to a tragedy," David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, tells the New York Times. "At this point, we still don't even know who she was and she can't be mourned."

Authorities will likely have to use dental records to identify the woman, reports PIX11. But because she was homeless, she may not have the usual records on file. Transient crime victims also typically don't have wallets or pocketbooks to help investigators, notes retired New York police sergeant Joseph Giacalone. The effort to identify this particular victim "could go on for quite a while," he adds. (The suspect is a Guatemalan native who entered the US illegally and claims to have no memory of what happened.)