Emily Babay

The Washington Examiner

By Emily Babay

Neighbors of a 2-year-old Falls Church girl had no answers for why the toddler’s grandmother who often baby-sat the child would throw her from a six-story parking garage, killing her.

Fairfax police offered no motive for the actions of 50-year-old Carmela Dela Rosa. But they said they were sure that the child’s death was intentionally caused by Dela Rosa, and charged her with murder.

Angelyn Ogdoc was severely injured after being thrown from a walkway connecting the Tysons Corner Center mall with a parking garage at about 7 p.m. Monday, Fairfax County police said.

The child was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she died about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Two other adult relatives were also at the mall, said Officer Tawny Wright, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman. All family members remained at the scene after the incident, and interviews with them led police to determine that the girl’s death was not an accident, Wright said.

The charges baffled neighbors who said Dela Rosa was a doting grandmother, someone who would host barbecue get-togethers for her Fairfax neighborhood.

Joan Nalewpa, who lives across the street from the Ogdocs, said the family’s affection for Angelyn was apparent. “These people loved that baby,” she said.

Another neighbor, who asked not to be named, said Dela Rosa was “nothing but a loving grandma.”

Dela Rosa, of the 3100 block of Ellenwood Drive, was the child’s maternal grandmother.

Angelyn lived with her parents and paternal grandparents in a quiet Falls Church neighborhood.

Dela Rosa was initially charged with aggravated malicious wounding, but the charge was upgraded to murder after Angelyn died. She was arraigned Tuesday and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 4. A public defender will represent her. She is being held in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

No one answered the door at Dela Rosa’s home on Tuesday and phone messages were not returned.

Four vehicles were parked in the driveway at the Ogdoc home on the 1800 block of Griffith Road on Tuesday afternoon, but no one answered the door. In the evening, several people were dropped off at the home but they did not talk to reporters.

Angelyn was “just a sweetheart,” said Terry Galvin, who lives next door to the Ogdocs. She said the girl could be funny when yelling in gibberish to her family.

Angelyn’s father, James Ogdoc, is a psychology student at George Mason University, and her mother, Mary Kathlyn Ogdoc, who a friend said goes by the name Kat, is an assistant program coordinator for the School of Management, according to the university’s directory.