Crime & Safety

Report: Stamford Woman Shot Dead in D.C. Suffered Postpartum Depression

Details are slowly emerging about Miriam Carey, the 34-year-old dental hygienist whose toddler was in the backseat of her mom's car when the Stamford woman was shot to death.

One day after Miriam Carey led police on a high-speed chase in the nation’s capital that ended with her shooting death, details are emerging about the 34-year-old Stamford woman.

A dental hygienist who appears to have worked for a time in Hamden, she suffered from postnatal depression, Carey’s mother told ABC News, according to a USA Today report.

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Carey was shot to death around 2:20 p.m. after leading police on a chase from the White House to the U.S. Capitol building — there, officials discovered that Carey’s 1-year-old daughter had been in the back seat of the black Infiniti she was driving the entire time, the Washington Post reports. Uninjured, the girl is in protective custody now. An officer in Washington, D.C., did sustain a non-life-threatening injury during the chase, police have told Georgetown Patch.

According to the Post, Carey’s Brooklyn-based sister, Amy Carey, told reporters “that’s impossible” when delivered news of Thursday’s events.

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“She wouldn’t be in D.C,” Amy Carey is quoted as saying. “She was just in Connecticut two days ago. I spoke to her.”

When officials in the nation’s capital discovered that the Infiniti was registered under Carey’s name in Stamford, CT, they descended on the woman’s Woodside Green home, snarling traffic as they blocked off the area — located alongside one major north-south artery of the city — and removed items from the apartment.

Stamford city officials said in a statement late Thursday that they were cooperating with the FBI’s investigation and had no further information on Carey. On Friday, Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said Woodside Green residents displaced by the search at the condo complex were allowed early in the morning to return to their homes.

The area of Woodside Green remains off-limits to the media. A Stamford police patrol car was stationed on the perimeter of the property that borders Bridge Street and Washington Boulevard, keeping a wary eye on the phalanx of media and their trucks which parked in the Washington Boulevard sidewalk (see photo).

At the Bridge Street Wienery, co-owner Michael Palmer and employee Emmely Albahae said that after police shut down Bridge Street Thursday afternoon, the only customers were police and reporters.

"When we closed at 9 o'clock, police said they would be there for four more hours," Albahae said.

According to WCBS-880 reporter Paul Murnane, investigators were still at the scene until about 8 a.m. Friday.

Stamford police and city officials on Friday redirected all media inquiries to the FBI's New Haven office. A message seeking comment was left Friday with the FBI.

As Hamden Patch reported, Carey was featured two years ago in the newsletter of a Hamden based periodontic practice. 

"We are excited to have Miriam!" the newsletter says. "She not only brings a delightful bedside manner, but also has a degree in nutrition that we hope to utilize in educating our patients about how important there diet is to maintaining optimum oral health."  

Stamford Patch will have more information as it becomes available.


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