2-year-old girl ID'd in St. Paul homicide, parents in custody

(FOX 9) - Police have identified the victim in Sunday’s homicide in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood as 2-year-old Melody Vang. Early reports listed her as 3 years old, but police said investigators and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner have learned she was only two. 

According to the St. Paul Police Department, officers responded to a home on the 1000 block of East 3rd Street in after the victim’s father called the non-emergency number and hung up. 

Officers arrived at 2:30 a.m. and spoke to the father, who said he thought his daughter was dead on the back porch. Officers went to the back porch where they found the victim, Vang, unconscious and unresponsive. Paramedics later pronounced her dead at the scene. 

Vang’s father, 42, and mother, 29, were both taken to police headquarters to be interviewed. They were later booked into the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of murder. Both parents remain in custody as of Monday afternoon, but no charges have been filed. 

Five other children ranging in age from 9 months to 11 years old were in the home at the time. They were all placed into the custody of Ramsey County Child Protection. 

Police are investigating Vang’s death as a homicide. No further details regarding how she died or what led to her death have been released.