Police have identified a woman set on fire in New York

New York City police have released the name of a woman who was set on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn.

Authorities on Tuesday identified Debrina Cavam, 61, of New Jersey as the victim of an apparently random attack on Dec. 22 that burned her body beyond recognition.

33-year-old Sebastian Sapeta is accused of arson with a lighter while Ms. Kavam was sleeping. He is believed to have fanned the flames with his shirt and then watched the flames grow from a bench outside a subway car.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Mr. Zapeta, who says he has no memory of the incident, on four counts of murder and one count of arson.

It took more than a week for authorities to fully identify the body.

Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said at a news conference at the start of the investigation that authorities were working to collect DNA and fingerprint evidence from Ms. Cavam’s remains.

“The priority for me, my office and the police department is to identify this woman so we can notify her family,” Mr. Gonzalez said.

False and unverified information about her, including a fake image created by artificial intelligence, circulated online while the authorities were at work.

There has also been an outpouring of support, including a vigil last week for an unidentified victim.

The police say Ms. Cavam was motionless, apparently asleep, on a subway train at the Coney Island Stilwell Avenue station in Brooklyn on the morning of Dec. 22 when Mr. Sapeta allegedly approached her with a lighter.

The pair never interacted and police believe they did not know each other.

The video appears to show the suspect waving his shirt at her, clearly trying to spread the fire rather than put it out. He then exits the subway car and watches the flames from a bench on the platform.

Jessica Tisch, New York’s police commissioner, said the smell of smoke drew police and Metropolitan Transportation Authority personnel to the fire, where they extinguished the flames.

“Unbeknownst to the responding officers, the suspect remained at the scene and was sitting on a bench on the platform outside the train car,” Ms Tisch said.

Authorities pronounced Ms. Coffee dead at the scene.

Ms Tisch described the incident as “one of the most depraved crimes that one person can commit against another”.

At a preliminary hearing Tuesday, prosecutor Ari Rothenberg said Mr. Zappetto told investigators he had been drinking and did not remember the incident, but identified himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire starting.

Mr Sapeta, who is originally from Guatemala, was deported from the US in 2018 and later re-entered the country illegally, immigration authorities said.

He is due back in court on January 7, prosecutors said.