Police: West Oak Lane girl, 3, was 11 pounds when she died

A young girl died early Monday from severe starvation, according a preliminary autopsy that found she weighed only 11 pounds when she arrived at a hospital from her West Oak Lane home.

Nathalyz Rivera, one of five children who lived in a home on the 7300 block of Sommers Road with their father, Carlos Rivera, died shortly before 2 a.m. Her condition disturbed even the most hardened of city homicide detectives.

"This is one of the worst cases of abuse that I've seen in my five years at the homicide unit," Capt. James Clark said at a press conference. "I saw the photos and even for me, they were difficult to look at."

Police found her father Carlos Rivera, 30, who disappeared earlier this afternoon after dropping his other children off at a relative's home, at Front Street and Duncannon Avenue in Olney sometime before 5 p.m., the department's public affairs unit said.

Clark said the medical examiner determined the death of Nathalyz as homicide by starvation. The young girl, who was a twin, had serious disabilities but had not seen a doctor in more than a year, according to Clark, who added that her home was in despicable condition.

"The house was in such bad shape, we believe she also had bruises but that might have been from fleas or insects or rodents biting her," Clark said.

Carlos Rivera, after finding Nathalyz unresponsive at about 1:45 a.m., called the mother, who was staying at the male friend's home, Clark said. Detectives are also interviewing the girl's mother and a male friend of the mother.