Mother of man accused of killing 3-month-old daughter in NYC says he had ‘no remorse’
The man accused of killing his “defenseless” 3-month-old daughter and leaving her body in a trash-strewn wooded area near Yankee Stadium asked his mother whether she’d turn him in “if I did something wrong,” the grieving grandma told The Post.
Damion Comager, 23, originally from Louisiana, was charged Monday with murder, manslaughter and concealment of a human corpse in connection to the tragic death of little Genevieve Rozzlyn Comager, whose body was found in the Bronx on Sunday night, police said.
Comager’s mother, Ashley Holmes, said her son confessed to her in a Saturday night phone call during a conversation about baby clothes.
“He said he wanted to ask me a hypothetical question,” Holmes said Monday night. “He said, ‘If I did something wrong, would you call the authorit[ies] on me?’ I said, ‘It depends on what you did,’ not knowing he already did it.”
Comager finally told his mother, “She is gone, she is gone,” according to Holmes.
“I said, ‘Gone where?’” Holmes continued. “When he told me, I said, ‘What? No you didn’t.’ I just hollered and hit my steering wheel, and that’s when I called his daddy. To me, he sounded like [he had] no remorse.”
The devastating exchange prompted Holmes to contact “child protective services,” she claimed. The Post could not immediately confirm Tuesday that the Administration for Children’s Services had been involved in the case.
A spokeswoman for the agency confirmed that it has been involved in investigating the case.
“Our top priority is protecting the safety and well-being of all children in New York City,” the ACS rep said. “As soon as this family came to our attention after this tragic matter arose, we launched an immediate investigation with the NYPD.”
Then “I called his daddy and we had a three-way conversation,” the young man’s stricken mother added.
Damion’s dad, Donald Comager, 47, previously told The Post he consulted with a priest before deciding to “do the right thing” and turn his own son in to police.
“That’s when they started searching for the baby,” Holmes said.
Authorities found Genevieve’s body around 8:25 p.m. Sunday — about two weeks after she was dumped there — when they searched the wooded area at West 161st Street and the Major Deegan Expressway, cops and law enforcement sources said.
According to sources, Damion allegedly admitted that he shook and slapped the baby on May 14 when she wouldn’t stop crying.
“He told me the baby was doing a lot of crying. She wouldn’t stop crying,” Donald Comager said of his son. “He said he just shook her and lay her down, and he lay down and went to sleep.
“He got up and reached for her and she was stiff and her body was cold. He panicked. He told his girlfriend, ‘I think she is dead.’”
Damion Comager’s girlfriend, Ivana Paolozzi, 20, originally from Switzerland, was also charged with concealment of a human corpse and obstructing governmental administration, police said.
Comager allegedly told cops he didn’t want to take her to a hospital after she became unresponsive because she had marks around her neck that he feared would raise suspicion, the sources said.
Later that morning, the girl was stuffed in a bag and dumped in the wooded area, not far from where the couple had lived with their baby, at a transitional housing shelter on University Avenue, according to the sources.
Holmes said she first realized something was wrong when her son stopped FaceTiming her with his infant daughter in tow.
“I didn’t ask why,” she said. “I just thought he stopped FaceTiming me and we talk[ed] on the phone. I knew something was wrong when I wasn’t hearing the baby. I asked him, ‘How is the baby?’ He would say, ‘The baby is fine, the baby is sleeping.’”
Little Genevieve used to cry a lot, according to Holmes, who said she had previously suggested that the baby wasn’t properly fed.
Damion told his mother that Ivana was breastfeeding, but it wasn’t enough, and the couple didn’t have money to buy formula, Holmes claimed.
“I said she [was] hungry and that’s why she was crying,” Holmes said. “’You [both are] not feeding her enough.’”
Damion’s mom, dad and stepmom started sending money to buy formula for the baby, Holmes said.
“Anything you need for that baby, we will give it to you,” she claimed she offered her son.
Earlier on Saturday, Damion told his mother, “‘Ma, I need some food. We are hungry,’” Holmes recalled, adding she didn’t have any money to send, so she called Damion’s father to let him know.
“I told him I was going to Walmart to get the baby some clothes,” she recalled. “He said, ‘No, no, she has enough.’”
After allegedly telling her about the grim incident, Holmes claimed her son said he and his girlfriend were going to go back to Switzerland and “she was going to have another baby and start all over again.”
Damion Comager struggled with mental illness and was diagnosed bipolar and schizophrenic as a child, his dad has said. His mom also said Damion “has a mental illness and he was under a lot of pressure.”
But “It’s no excuse for what he did,” Holmes said. “Both of them have to pay for what they did. [The baby] was 3 months old. She was defenseless. She couldn’t fight back.
“I’m angry. I’m upset. I’m everything,” Holmes continued. “There are no words. I love that baby. She was a part of me.”
Still, she said, “my son loved his daughter.”
“He is still my child,” Holmes said of her son. “I still love him. He doesn’t need to be put in jail. He needs to be put in a mental facility and do his time. She needs to go to jail. I don’t know too much about her, but [she] sat up there and let that man kill [her] daughter.
“I love my son but at a certain age in life, you make your choices. He made that choice.”
