Medical examiner ruled her death a homicide
Michel, who had lived in the United States since 2022, had been in Washington county jail for six months following a mental health crisis in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, a small community outside Pittsburgh with a significant Haitian immigrant population. A neighbor had called emergency services in September 2025 reporting that Michel appeared to be having a crisis, holding a knife and screaming. She was jailed on misdemeanor charges that were repeatedly rescheduled before a district judge dismissed them in late February.
After the charges were dismissed, Michel was arrested by ICE officers and taken to an agency office in south Pittsburgh, where she was placed in removal proceedings despite having an asylum hearing scheduled for a few weeks later, according to her attorney. ICE then released her wearing summer clothes and fitted with an ankle monitor.
It was 20°F that morning. Michel, who did not speak English, was illiterate and had untreated severe mental illness, was left to make her way home to Charleroi, roughly 20 miles away.
Surveillance camera footage released by Pittsburgh Regional Transit and obtained by Pittsburgh’s Public Source showed Michel sitting at a bus shelter on the city’s South Side starting on 1 March, remaining there through darkness that evening and into the following morning, when she was found lying on the ground, not breathing and with no discernible pulse, according to Port Authority police. Maintenance workers raised the alarm. She died hours later in a Pittsburgh hospital.
In June, the Allegheny county medical examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide. Jim Madalinsky, senior public information officer for public safety at the Allegheny county police department, said the ruling indicates “the death was caused by the actions of another individual” and “is not to be interpreted as a declaration of criminal guilt.” Pittsburgh detectives began investigating in July.
The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, posted a statement on X in March saying ICE had “NOTHING to do with this woman’s death” and calling Michel “an illegal alien from Haiti.” The DHS said she was released “with all of her belongings, including a fully charged phone, in sunny weather in the middle of Pittsburgh, where public transport is readily available.”
Murphy disputes those claims. He said Michel entered the United States legally, was awarded humanitarian status and had an asylum application in process. He also said her phone plan had expired while she was in jail, rendering the charged phone useless. Murphy called ICE’s decision to release her “a very bad judgment call.”
“Anybody who knew Daphy for more than one minute knew there was something wrong with her,” Murphy said. “It was a real dumb thing to just release her like that in February in Pittsburgh, where it’s very cold, knowing how screwed up she was.”
Adrianna Torres-García, deputy director of the Free Migration Project, a Philadelphia-based organization that provides legal services for immigrants facing deportation, said ICE’s failure to consider detainees’ circumstances after release is systemic. “At no point have I seen ICE show concern about people reaching their final destinations after release from detention,” Torres-García said. “Once people leave the detention center or jail where they were held, it’s as if it’s no longer ICE’s responsibility.”
Haddy Gassama, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said ICE is supposed to exercise discretion when releasing people, including accounting for weather conditions, physical or mental health issues, and the dangers of releasing someone far from where they were picked up. “I think this really raises a question around ICE’s own internal practices and the need for stricter guidelines and standards on their practices of release,” Gassama said.
Michel’s case echoes a similar death a week earlier in Buffalo, New York, where a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee with significant vision impairment and limited English was found dead after U.S. border patrol dropped him off alone at a closed coffee shop. His death was also ruled a homicide.
The Michel family, who are grieving and staying private, is supported by a broad community of locals and immigrants in the Charleroi and Pittsburgh area. Some community members are organizing vigils and fundraisers. In her obituary, the family described Michel as “a person with a kind heart” who “since she was a child, showed great respect, courage and love for everyone.”
“This person was loved,” Murphy said.