Subway burning victim identified as Debrina Kawam, 57

January 2, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

A NYPD car. Photo: Julio Cortez/AP File

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CONEY ISLAND – OFFICIALS ON Tuesday announced that the city had finally identified the victim of last week’s fatal burning attack aboard a Coney Island F train as New Jersey native Debrina Kawam, age 57, of Toms River, reports the New York Post. Her body had been badly damaged by the fire; identification through fingerprints took over a week. Kawam reportedly entered the city’s shelter system in September. A woman who purchased Kawam’s mother’s former house in Toms River – Kawam’s last known address – said that Kawam had spoken to her in May and seemed not to have realized that her mother had moved, but that she did not appear to be homeless at that time. A neighbor said she recalled an older and younger woman living in the house previously, with the younger woman acting as a caretaker.

Chief suspect Sebastian Zapeta-Calil has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, as well as arson, in Kawam’s death.

A yearbook from Passaic Valley Regional High School in 1985 shows that Kawam had been a cheerleader and aspired to be a flight attendant; classmates praised her “million dollar smile.”

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