Arrest Warrant Sought for Father of Girl Found Dead

Homicide detectives investigating the death of a 5-year-old girl whose body was found in a Normal Heights apartment Tuesday have asked the district attorney to seek an arrest warrant for the child’s father, officials said Thursday.

Police have been looking for Ibraham Mubarak, 38, for questioning since the body of his daughter, Julianna Cathleen Olson, was discovered by the manager of the apartment where they lived. Coroner’s deputies said the child had been dead for at least one week. An autopsy revealed that the girl had suffered traumatic injuries and the death was classified as a homicide.

Steve Casey, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said a lawyer in the child-abuse unit was reviewing the case Thursday and a decision on whether to file a criminal complaint against Mubarak would probably be made today. If a criminal complaint is filed, an arrest warrant would probably be issued as well, Casey said.

Mubarak and his daughter had been living in the apartment building on the 4600 block of Wilson Avenue where the child was found since last January. Neighbors said they had not seen Mubarak for at least two weeks before the discovery of the girl’s body.

John L. Rindone, assistant superintendent for personnel at the Sweetwater Union High School District, where Mubarak had worked as a substitute teacher, said Mubarak quit on March 8 without giving a reason.

Mubarak and the child’s mother, Cathleen Olson, were divorced before Julianna was born. Olson had custody of the child until her death in 1983.