On Jan. 21, at around 10 a.m., a Niagara County Sheriff’s deputy was driving through the 1000 block of Cleveland Avenue in the Falls.
He was transporting an inmate from the county jail back to Lockport after an appearance in Falls City Court.
As the deputy neared a ramshackle home at 1014 Cleveland Ave., a distraught man flagged him down. The man told the deputy that his friend, Judith Lynn Lafler, was lying on the floor inside the run down dwelling and she wasn’t breathing.
The deputy notified Falls police and Patrol Officer Matthew Maglio responded to the scene.
The 73-year-old man, squatting in what has been a long abandoned property, told Maglio that Lafler was in the home when he arrived there the day before, around 1 p.m. on Jan. 20. The man said that he saw Lafler, “lying on his floor, moaning in pain, claiming she was badly beaten.”
The squatter told police that Lafler had “plastic wrap around her legs” and that since he had no phone to call for help, he “cleaned (her) up” and “wrapped (her) in blankets to keep her warm.”
The man said when he woke up the next morning, Lafler “was not breathing.” That’s when he flagged down the deputy.
Law enforcement sources said it’s believed that Lafler froze to death in the unheated home. Overnight temperatures were in the single digits on Jan. 21, according to the National Weather Service.
What the squatter didn’t know, and police didn’t initially realize, was that Lafler had made headlines just over five months earlier as the victim of a brutal attack that saw the owner of a Falls food truck set her on fire for allegedly stealing from him. The wounds that she was suffering from, when she was found dead, had not come from a beating but from having been lit ablaze months earlier.
Falls police patrol officers had responded, at 1:43 a.m. Aug. 4, to a call of a “woman on fire outside a food truck” in the parking lot of a gas station at Niagara and Seventh streets. The responding patrol said they found Lafler, 48, with severe burns to her head, arms and body.
The first officer on the scene said that it looked like “(Lafler’s) face was melting off.”
Lafler was treated at the scene by Falls firefighters and then rushed to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo for care. Detectives said she had suffered third-degree burns over much of her body.
Police have charged Barinder Singh, 38, the then owner of the Indian Fusion food truck, with a single count of first-degree assault in connection with the incident involving Lafler. Singh is awaiting the assignment of a new defense attorney after rejecting a plea offer from prosecutors in the case.
He is free from custody on $100,000 bail.
First Assistant Niagara County District Attorney Doreen Hoffmann has reportedly said that Lafler’s death will have “no effect” on Singh’s prosecution.
Sources close to the police investigation of the case said Lafler had been confronted by Singh, who accused her of stealing from his food truck. That confrontation then escalated and investigators said Singh “doused (Lafler) with a flammable liquid and set her on fire.”
Several investigators, with extensive knowledge of the case, called it “disturbing and horrific.”
Lafler reportedly received treatment for her wounds at ECMC and was later transferred to continue her recovery at Niagara Rehab & Nursing Center on Cedar Avenue in the Falls. Repeated calls to representatives of both medical facilities seeking comment on her treatment, the length of her stay, and what continuing support she might have been receiving at the time of her death, have not been returned.
Niagara County Commissioner of Social Services Meghan Lutz did confirm that Lafler “was known to the Niagara County Department of Social Services and our team was working with her to provide assistance, including housing.”
Lafler reportedly suffered from mental health issues but Lutz said, “Confidentially laws prevent me from discussing her case in any greater detail.”
The social services commissioner said when a person receives an adult protective services referral, “We engage with the client to assess their needs and whether or not the department can assist to meet those needs.”
However, Lutz said, “Adults have the ability to choose whether or not to engage with DSS and accept or deny the services being offered.”