A New York City woman was found dead at the bottom of a staircase inside her home on Wednesday morning after neighbors heard a child crying near her body, according to reports about the incident.

“Officers discovered a 22-year-old female victim unconscious and unresponsive laying on the bottom of the basement staircase with trauma to the body,” N.Y.C. police said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

Tonie Wells was pronounced dead at the scene. Her official cause of death is pending results of an autopsy from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York.

Police were called after neighbors reportedly heard a toddler girl crying and unattended at the basement steps of the two-story home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, according to local TV station WNBC.

The child — Wells’ daughter — was unhurt, according to news reports.

Authorities began searching for Wells’ husband, Barry Wells, after they responded to the scene. He was found hours later and taken to a hospital in the Bronx, N.Y.C. officials said during a news conference.

“[He was] checked out because he mentioned he tried to commit suicide, which he did not,” said Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.

Barry is in custody but has not been charged in the death of his wife, officials said. Attempts to reach a family member for comment were unsuccessful. It was unclear if he has obtained an attorney.

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On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Michael Kemper told reporters that Tonie’s death seemed suspicious, noting that she had “bruising on her neck.”

“It appears as if she was either pushed or fell down the flight of stairs leading to the basement,” Kemper said, according to the New York Post.

“It was him,” Tonie’s sister told the New York Daily News. “It wasn’t an accident. It was definitely him.”

Boyce told reporters the couple was married in April. In September, Barry was charged with second-degree strangulation, according to court records.

He was released after he paid his $5,000 bail, officials said. That case is set to continue in 2018.

“Mr. Wells did make statements to us about the problems they were having,” Boyce said.

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